A Midnight's Rose
by wishbone23
Summary: I've been transformed into a pokemon with nothing left but my name. Being on a rescue team is fun, but it's much harder than it looks. Especially because all the while there are questions of my destiny hanging over my head. And then there's my partner. She's cute, I guess...
1. Chapter 1:A Storm at Sea

**Author's note:Just so we're clear, this is not a novelization of PMD explorers of sky. It loosely follows the plot for the first two and a half chapters or so, then diverges into something completely different. **

Where am I? What... what's going on? I can't see anything.

"Hello, brave hero," a voice says.

"What? Where are you? Who are you? What's going on?" I ask.

"None of that matters right now. You have to listen closely. Take your courage, and become a hero. Save the innocent. Only after becoming such a hero can you find me. Only then can you find your destiny. Do you understand?" The voice asks.

"Kinda, but his makes no sense. Who are you? Where am I?" I ask. The voice sighs.

"We don't need to waste the limited time we have on whom I am."

"Yes there is. Come on! Who are you?"

"My name, since you seem so intent on knowing, is Minna. Keep an eye out for me when you wake up. You won't see me for a while, but keep my name in your mind."

"Wake up? Wake up from what? What's going on?" But the voice doesn't respond. I feel myself growing more and more tired, until I eventually drift off.

* * *

The relaxing movement of the tide is the first thing I hear. In... out... in... out. A constant repetition of sound; beautiful sound, really.

Where am I, though? The more I try to think about where I am, the less I seem to know.

I can't... hold on... I'm... drifting off...

* * *

I hear a voice. Ugh... I can't piece together any words, though. Maybe... Maybe if I just stand up I'll be able to do something.

I slowly get up, I hate getting up from a good sleep, this had better be important.

"You're awake! Thank goodness!" I heard a feminine sounding voice exclaim. Yes, I am awake, I guess. I open my eyes and look around. I'm on a beach, the sun is setting while glistening bubbles float through the air. Next to me a Vulpix stands, she's looking at me. Was she the voice? She must be, no one else is nearby.

Where am I? I know that this is a beach, but it's certainly not one from my memory. Then again, now that I think about it, no place really is from my memory. I have to remember something! Think! A place, a name, a friend?

Nothing. All I remember is that I'm a human... a human being. I remember what those look like, at least.

"You wouldn't move at all. I was really worried about you!" The vulpix says. I turn to her. "Do you have any idea how you ended up unconscious out here?" I was unconscious? Well, that's news to me. Looks like neither of us knows what happened. "Anyway, I'm Avia. Glad to meet you!" She smiles at me, her smile is infectious; I can't help but smile as well. "Who are you? I don't think I've seen you around before."

"I don't know who I am, or anything, really. Only that I'm a human being," I say. She jumps.

"What? You say you're a human? You look like a normal eevee to me," She says. An eevee? That's a laugh. I am completely sure that I'm... Since when do humans have fur? And I feel a tail, humans don't have tails! I guess I am an eevee. But how? I'm completely positive that I'm a human, yet here I am. But how did this happen? I know that I'm a human, or at least, I used to be a human. When did that change? When did the humanity stop and the eeveeness start? I don't know, that's for sure."You're...a little odd... Are you pulling some kind of trick on me?" I shake my head vigorously. I can't have her thinking bad things about me, she's the closest thing I have to a friend right now. "You're telling me the truth? Okay, how about your name? What's your name?" My name? I doubt I'll remember that, it's not like I remember anything else. My name... Oh yeah, I remember now!

"My name is Jiro," I say.

"So your name is Jiro, huh? Okay. You don't seem to have a sinister intent, at least. I'm sorry that I doubted you. More and more bad pokemon have been turning up lately, you see. Many pokemon have become aggressive lately. It's just not safe anymore..." Wow, you're pretty easy to gain the trust of, considering that all I had to go to gain your trust was talk with you for a few minutes. A zubat and a koffing float/fly up behind her. The zubat slams into her, knocking her to the ground. A stone falls out of her possession and to the sand. "Arg!"

"Well, I do beg your pardon," the koffing says.

"Hey! Why'd you do that?" Avia yells at them. The zubat laughs.

"What, you can't figure it out? Maybe you're as dumb as you are cowardly. We did it because we wanted to mess with you. Can't face up to us, can you?" The zubat says to her. They seem to be completely ignoring me. Maybe I can help in some way.

"Wh-what!" Avia exclaims.

"That's yours, isn't it?" The zubat says, referring to the stone, which, now that I look at it, has a strange symbol on it.

"Oh! That's..." Avia starts.

"Sorry, kiddo. We'll take that!" The zubat says. He picks up the stone.

"Aah!" Avia screams. The koffing laughs.

"Not gonna make a move to get that back? What's the matter, are you too scared? I didn't expect that you'd be such a coward!" He turns to his zubat companion. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"See you around, coward," the zubat says. This rock obviously means much to Avia, but she's not going to stand up for herself. I guess that means that I'll have to be the hero. The zubat and koffing fly/float towards a cave.

"T-that's my personal treasure, it means everything to me," Avia says quietly, so that only I can hear. "If I lose that... No. No, I can't lose that, not now, not ever."

"You're not going anywhere," I say while the zubat and koffing are passing us. They stop and laugh.

"Really? And who's going to stop us? Certainly not the coward, and I'm sure that we can take you," the zubat says.

"Are you, now? Because, the way I see it, both of your assumptions are wrong," I say. And I'm right, too, because just as I finish talking, Avia slams into the zubat, sending his body crashing into the rocks behind him. I follow Avia's lead and slam into the koffing, causing him to have the same fate as his partner. They try to grasp the situation, but before they can Avia and I slam into the zubat and koffing respectively. They smash into the walls once again, dropping the stone that we're battling over.

"Blast it! How'd we get wiped by wimps like them?" The koffing says.

"Bah. Just take the stupid stone back, then," the zubat says.

"Don't think you're so awesome. Your victory was a fluke," The koffing says.

"Yeah, you just remember that," the zubat adds before both him and his koffing friend run away.

"My relic fragment!" Avia exclaims. She's practically bouncing with joy. She picks up the 'relic fragment'. "Thank goodness... I actually managed to get it back." She turns to me, tears welling up in her eyes. "This only happened because you helped me, Jiro. Because you had confidence in me, because you encouraged me to fight for what's mine. Thank you, Jiro!" I'm not really sure if I did much, but I shouldn't dare to correct her, she seems to happy right now to disrupt. "Thank you very much!" I only helped because I happened to be here... Was this the right course of action to take? Well, Avia seems happy, so I'd say so. It's nice to be appreciated.

"It was no trouble," I say. She drops the relic fragment in front of me.

"This is what they stole. This is a relic fragment. Well, at least, that's what I started calling it. This relic fragment is my precious treasure. You see, I've always liked legends and lore. I always get so exited when I hear tales from the past! Don't you feel the same way? Hidden troves full of treasure and strange relics, uncharted territories veiled in darkness, and new lands just waiting to be discovered! Such places must be full of gold and treasure! And history! Wouldn't it be dramatic to make historical discoveries? That's what I always dream of. It's all so exiting to me. And one day I found this relic fragment. Sure, it doesn't look like much, but take a closer look," Avia says. I look at the relic fragment, and just as I noted earlier, there is a strange pattern on it. "See that strange pattern inscribed on it? There must be some meaning to this pattern. This relic fragment must be the key to legendary places! To areas where precious treasure lies! At least that's the feeling I get. That's why I want to join an exploration team. This fragment must fit into something somewhere, and I want to discover where that is. I want to solve the mystery of my relic fragment! So earlier, I tried joining an exploration team as an apprentice, but... I was too cowardly... What about you, Jiro? What are you going to do now? You lost your memory, and somehow transformed into an eevee... Do you have any place where you can stay? If not, can I ask a big favor? Would you form an exploration team with me? I think we could make a good team together, Jiro. So will you do that with me? Please?"

What should I do? I'm being recruited out of the blue. I don't know what an exploration team is, but even the thought of one seems to make Avia happy, so how bad can it be? And it's not like I have anywhere to go anyways. Maybe I can discover more about myself by hanging around with Avia. Plus, Minna said that I'd have to be a hero to find her, and my destiny, and being on an exploration team sure sounds heroic.

"Sure, I'll form an exploration team with you, it sounds like fun," I say.

"Oh? Really?! You'll really form an exploration team with me? Yay! Thank you! We're going to be a great combination! Let's make this work! First we need to go to Wigglytuff's place and sign up as apprentices. That's where we can get the training to become a proper exploration team. I think the training will be very tough. So let's give it our best!"


	2. Chapter 2 part 1:The New Recruits

Chapter 2: The New Recruits.

Two small, controlled fires surround a building. It seems to be a tent, but with the shape of a wigglytuff of top. In front of me, blocking my entrance to the tent, there's a grate. Is this the guild of which Avia spoke?

"This is Wigglytuff's guild," Avia says. Well, that answers that question. "To form an exploration team, we need to register our team here. Then we have to train until we become a first-rate exploration team. Gosh! Isn't this place just a little bit odd? It just is. No! I've got Jiro with me this time, I have to be brave!" She seems exited, which is good, I guess, but I can also see her shaking. She's obviously scared out of her mind. She walks on top of the grate.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!" A shout from below the grate yells.

"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?" Another shout from below the grate asks.

"The footprint is vulpix's! The footprint is vulpix's!" The first voice shouts back. Why must they shout everything twice? Avia trembles, but she stays on the grate, mumbling something to herself.

"It's okay, Avia, this is what you've been dreaming of, remember?" I say.

"Right! I can't give in now!" She says. She flashes a smile at me.

"You may enter!" The second voice shouts. Finally, the voice didn't repeat itself. "Someone's with you! So get that stranger to stand up there!" Get me to stand up there? I think I can find my own way across the whole five feet I need to traverse to get to the grate on my own. Avia steps off of the grate and looks at me; I step onto the grate.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!" The first voice says. Arg. Twice again? These two need to stop repeating themselves.

"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?" The second voice sounds back.

"The footprint is... The footprint is... Um..."

"What's the matter?! Sentry! Sentry?! What's wrong, sentry Diglett?" Okay, so the sentry's name is Diglett. That'll probably come in handy later.

"Um... Er... The footprint is... Well... Maybe eevee's! Maybe eevee's!" I hope these two don't repeat themselves in normal conversations too, that would make them quite bothersome to talk to.

"What?! Maybe?!"

"B-but... It's not a footprint that you normally see around here."

"Ugh! Well that's pretty crummy! Checking the footprints of visiting pokemon is your job, isn't it Diglett?"

"Yes, but... I don't know what I don't know."

"Are they arguing down there?" Avia asks. I nod.

"Sorry to make you wait. Well it's true that you don't see any eevee in these parts, but you don't seem to be bad. Okay, good enough! Enter!" The second voice says. All it takes to earn this guy's trust is what? I don't even know. Having a kind looking footprint? I have no idea. So far, all of the pokemon I've met here have either tried to rob Avia, or are like Avia and trust me for no good reason. Well, I guess I shouldn't complain about all of that trust, it's hardly a bad thing. The gate rises while I'm thinking.

"I-I'm so nervous... Could you go in first?" Avia says. I shrug and walk into the tent first, but Avia stays put.

"Avia, are you coming?" I ask. She rushes into the tent, stopping next to me.

"Sorry, this is just all so nerve wracking," she says. Inside the tent there's a board with some papers on it and a hatch with a ladder that leads underground. We quickly climb down the hatch, and into what appears to be the lobby of the guild. There are many pokemon talking, all split off in what seem to be teams, and there's two message boards, one on each side of the room, one with papers containing words on it, and one with papers containing drawings. Avia and I step into the middle of the lobby, as to not disturb pokemon who may need to leave. "So this Wigglytuff's guild! There's quite a few pokemon here, do you think that they're all members of exploration teams?"

"Excuse me," a voice says before I can even think of how to respond. A chatot walks up to us, or flutters up to us? I don't know, but whatever he does, he moves towards us. "It was you two that just came in, right?"

"Yep, that was us," I say, trying to sound as calm as I can. I can't let this pokemon know how nervous I am, that may cause problems... Somehow.

"I'm Chatot; the pokemon in the know around these parts. I am Guildmaster Wigglytuff's right-hand pokemon!" Well then. This guy obviously likes to toot his own horn. "Now, shoo! Leave the premises! We have no time for salespokemon or silly surveys. Off you go, if you please," the chatot says.

"N-no! That's not why we are here at all. We want to form an exploration team. So we came here, we need the proper training if we wish to be a good exploration team, after all," Avia says.

"Wh-what?! Exploration team?" Chatot turns away from us. "It's rare to see a kid like this want to apprentice at the guild. Especially given how rigorous our training is. Surely the steady stream of pokemon who run away from our training proves how tough training is." He obviously didn't mean for Avia and me to hear him, but he doesn't seem to know how to talk quietly enough to himself.

"Excuse me, Chatot was it? Is the training really that hard?" I ask. What did I get myself into? I can't handle that kind of conditions, can I?

"Huh? No! Not at all! Our training program is as easy as can be!" Chatot says. Well then, it looks like this guy wants us to join, lying about training like that. I guess I'll try to do it though, as long as Avia's up for it. She is, after all, my only friend. "Well, well, well. I wish you had told me up from that you wished to create an exploration team."

"What a shift in attitude," Avia whispers to me. It seems like she has the whole, 'talking quietly' thing down, unlike Chatot.

"Okay then, let's get your team signed up right away. Follow me," Chatot says, before leading us down the another hatch's ladder.

We arrive on a floor that looks somewhat similar to the first. There's a hallway and a room with a closed door to my left, and a odd looking sculpture as well a room with no door to my right.

"This is the guild's second underground floor; where the apprentices mainly work. Team registration is this way. Come along, please," Chatot says. He leads us to my left, towards the closed door. A window comes into view, and Avia immediately rushes over to it.

"Wow! We're two floors under the ground, but you can still see outside!" Avia exclaims. She smiles at the window, fascinated by the wonders that lie behind it.

"Oh please! Hush now! The guild is built into the side of a cliff. It's only natural that you would be able to see outside," Chatot says.

"Oh," Avia says. She looks at the ground, obviously hurt by Chatot's scolding.

"Now this is the Guildmaster's chamber. You are not, I repeat, you are not be discourteous to our Guildmaster," Chatot says. He turns to the door. "Guildmaster! It's Chatot! I'm coming in!" Chatot says before going inside the room.

"Ladies first," I say to Avia, moving so that she can enter the door. She tries to refrain from laughing. She succeeds, for the most part, but she does laugh a little while entering the door. I follow soon after her.

We enter a room with various treasures and flowers scattered around. Directly in front of us, there is a wiggilytuff standing on a red carpet, facing away from us.

"Guildmaster! I present to you two pokemon who wish to join our guild as apprentices!" Chatot says. He sounds like he's seem very official, I'm surprised that he doesn't have a more casual relationship with the Guildmaster, seeing as how they are supposedly pretty close. The wigglytuff turns around and smiles at us.

"Hiya! My name's Wigglytuff! I'm the guild's Guildmaster! You want to form an exploration team? Then, let's go for it! First we must register your exploration team's name! So tell me, what is your team's name?" the wigglytuff says. Wait, we need a team name? I'm sure Avia has already come up with one, this being her dream and all. I hope it's something cool.

"Oh? Our team's name? I didn't think about a team name," Avia says. She turns to me. "So what do you think would be a good name for us, Jiro?" Well then, there go my hopes of her having a cool name at the ready for us. Come on, Jiro, think, you can't keep everybody waiting! Mysteries? No. Awesomeness? No.

"Team Beyond," I blurt. Hey, that actually doesn't sound half bad. Avia smiles.

"That's perfect!" She exclaims.

"All settled, then! I'll register your team and Beyond. Registering, registering! All registered. Yoom... Tah!" Wigglytuff yells that last part, causing Avia and me to jump. "Congratulations! From now on, you're an official exploration team! I present you with this in commemoration." Wigglytuff sets a gold colored box in front of Avia and me. Avia opens it without another word, and I look to see what's inside. There's a badge, a map of sorts, and a bag.

"The badge is for team identification, and I assume that you know what the rest of these things are," Chatot says. Avia nods.

"Thank you for this. We'll do our best," Avia says.

"Yup. But you're only apprenticing right now, so do your best to train," Wigglytuff says.

"We will. Jiro and I will always do our best, right Jiro?" Avia asks.

"Yeah!" I confirm.

* * *

Chatot leads us down the hallway, and to the room and the end of it. There's two beds made out of hay there, and a window.

"So this is our room?" Avia asks.

"Yes. You will live here while you work for us. Things will start getting busy for you tomorrow! So rise early and start living up to our code! Don't stay up late, get to bed early. Trust me, you'll thank me for telling you this later. That is all," Chatot says. He walks out of the room.

* * *

Once it's late, Avia and I lie in our beds, from what I can tell, neither of us is able to fall asleep.

"Jiro? Are you still awake?" Avia asks.

"Yeah, what's up?" I respond.

"My heart's been racing all day, but I'm glad I finally forced myself to come here. I thought Wigglytuff would be scary, but he's actually pretty nice. We'll experience all sorts of new things starting tomorrow, but I'm not very frightened. Actually, I can't wait to find out what new adventures are in store for us. Anyways, I'm getting a little tired, thanks for listening to me. Let's give it our all tomorrow," Avia says.

"Sleep tight, sweet dreams," I say.

"Same to you, Jiro," Avia says. She yawns and begins to fall into a rhythmic pattern of breathing, making me believe that she has fallen asleep.

So now I'm suddenly apprenticing at the guild. I have to admit, it seems like it's pretty fun to be on an exploration team. And Avia seems pretty nice. But first thing's first, who am I? How did I turn into a pokemon? How did I end up unconscious on that beach? I'm feeling pretty tired. Maybe the answers will find me after a good night's sleep. If not, then I'm sure it'll come to me eventually if I just wait. All I need to do is become a hero, right? How hard can that be?


	3. Chapter 2 part 2:The Well

"Hey! Guys, it's time to wake up! Come on, up and at 'em!" A voice shouts. Ugh. I hate waking up. I guess I have to wake up eventually, though. "Why are you still asleep?! Wake up!"

"What is it?" Avia asks.

"Come on! Wake up! I'm Loe, and I'm a fellow apprentice! If you're late for our morning briefing you're going to be sorry! So wake up! Guildmaster Wigglytuff has got a huge temper. If you make him lose it... Just get moving, okay?! I'm not going to get in trouble because you rookies got up late! So get in gear!" The voice says. Based on how the voice sounds, I'd say the speaker is a male.

"Ugh. That was a tad loud. There's no reason to yell at us like that, is there? What did he say? Something about getting ready? Oh my gosh! We signed up as apprentices at Wigglytuff's guild! I can't believe that I forgot! But that means..." I get up and open my eyes. I see Avia having a hard time standing still. I wonder what the big deal is? "We overslept! Come on, Jiro!" Avia leads me through the hallway, both of us running as fast as we can. Once we arrive in the lobby of the lower floor of the guild we quickly move into the formation that everyone else seems to be in. There's quite a few pokemon here. There's thirteen, including Avia, me, and Chatot. But Chatot's not in our formation. He stands in front of the rest of us, looking at Avia and me.

"You're late, rookies!" A lotad yells at us. I recognize his voice as the apprentice named Loe who yelled at us earlier. This guy has some temper on him, that's for sure.

"Hush. There's no need to yell," Chatot says, "everyone seems to be present. Very well, let us conduct our morning address. Guildmaster, the guild is in full attendance!" The Guildmaster walks out of his room. "Thank you, Guildmaster. Please address the crew." The Guildmaster stares at us, his eyes wide open, and snores.

"The Guildmaster never ceases to amaze me," a male electrike says.

"Yeah, Volt, you've got that right," a female roselia adds.

"It seems like he's wide awake," a female plusle says.

"Eek! His eyes are wide open, but he's fast asleep!" A female sunflora adds.

"Thank you sir. We all value your... words of wisdom," Chatot says, "okay everyone! Take our guildmaster's words of wisdom to heart." Yes, I'll be sure to remember the noise of that snoring. Because that's obviously so very important to my life. "Finally, let's not forget our morning cheers! All together now!"

The voice of the apprentices, other than Avia and I, becomes one soul unit, "a one, a two, a one-two-three! One: don't shirk work! Two: run away and pay! Three: smiles go for miles!" Avia and I stumble on our words, trying to become part of the apprentice unit, but for the most part, unsuccessfully.

"Okay everyone; get to work," Chatot says.

"Hooray!" The mass unit of apprentices says before all going in their separate directions.

"Hey, come here you two," Chatot says to Avia and me. He leads us to the second floor of the guild, where the boards are. Specifically, he leads us to the area right in front of the board with many different papers that have words on them stuck to it. "You're just beginners, so we''ll have you start off with an easy assignment. Like..." Chatot scans to board quickly. "This one! This is the job bulletin board, by the way. Pokemon from various regions post job requests here. You're aware that bad pokemon have been cropping up in greater numbers, right?"

"Yep. Because the flow of time is getting messed up. It's causing chaos, right? Which is why many bad pokemon are appearing," Avia says. The flow of time is getting mixed up? How does that happen? How does one mess up time? Isn't time like a constant river flow? You can't dam time, can you? So what could be wrong with time here? And how do more bad pokemon pop up because of that? What's going on here?

"Precisely. Time's getting out of what has caused an outbreak of bad pokemon. Perhaps because of all that; we have noticed an increase in the number of jobs. In addition- and it's unknown if this is because of time's influence- there has also been a mass outbreak of mystery dungeons," Chatot says. Mystery dungeons? What the heck are mystery dungeons?

"So, Jiro. You know that cave that we were near when you helped me get back my relic fragment? That was a mystery dungeon. A mystery dungeon changes each time you go into it; there's a different layout and different items every time you enter. If you faint in the middle of a mystery dungeon you'll lose half of your money, half or more of your items, and you also get kicked right out of the dungeon. They're very strange places. But every time you go inside there are new places to discover! They really are fantastic places to go explore," Avia says.

"My, my, you're very well informed, aren't you? That makes things much easier to explain. Jobs usually take place in mystery dungeons, with a few exceptions. That said, here is the the job that I would like you two to do, Chatot says. He gives a paper to Avia.

"Let's see," Avia says, "Hello! My name is Blaze! I accidentally dropped my prized possession, a pocket watch given to me from my grandfather, into the town wishing well. That watch means everything to me! Without it, I have nothing left to remember my grandfather by! As a fire type, I can't swim down into the well to get it, so I would like to enlist the help of you, dear reader. I beg for your help, exploration team members! Forever yours, Blaze." Well that seems easy enough. We can go over and... Avia's a fire type, so she can't swim. Am I a good swimmer? I really hope so, because it looks like I may need to be. "Wait, so we're just picking up an item that someone accidentally dropped? I'd rather go on a bigger adventure than that. I'd rather look for treasure or explore unknown places. Fun things like that!"

"Hush. It's important that you rookies pay your dues. This may not seem like an important job to you, but this is a big deal to whoever wrote this letter! If I'm understood, you'd best get on with your work," Chatot says.

Avia leads me out of the guild and through town. There's many pokemon there, but we don't stop to say hello. We head straight for the wishing well at the edge of town.

Once we get there, I see a male growlithe standing near the well. Avia walks up to him.

"Are you Blaze? The one who dropped his watch into the well?" Avia asks. He looks at us and blushes.

"Well that's one way to put it, yes. So you're my rescue team, I take it?" Blaze asks. I guess so, I hope that this well isn't too deep.

"Yep, that's us! My name is Avia, and this is my partner Jiro," Avia says.

"So I take it that Jiro's going to get it then?" Blaze asks.

"Yeah, that's the plan," I say. I walk over to the well and look down. It's hard to see the bottom because of the moving water, but it seems like it's a pretty long distance to swim. I look back at Avia, who smiles at me and nods. I guess I don't have a choice. I jump onto the blue side of the well, take a deep breath- which I hold- and jump into the water.

I can see the watch in between some small coins, so I start swimming towards it. As it turns out, I'm not really the best swimmer.

When I get close to the watch I feel a sudden pain in my chest. It's becoming hard to hold onto the breath that I took.

When I reach the watch I realize that there's only one way to hold it. I need to grab it with my mouth. It's too slippery for me to grab onto with my legs. I open my mouth and immediately feel a rush of water entering. I quickly put the watch inside my mouth and close my mouth yet again.

At this point, the pain is adding up to feel like something's crushing my ribs. I desperately try to swim up. The top of the well still remains quite far away, however.

I don't want to die. Not now, not like this. Even through the pain I give everything I have in one last attempt to resurface from the well.

I do end up resurfacing, and I spit the watch out of the well so that I can get some air. My frantic breaths and panicked splashing about must scare Avia, because I hear her gasp. And she should be scared, I almost died!

She jumps up onto the stones and looks at me, "are you okay?" She asks.

My speech is broken because of my frantic breathing, "no... not really... I will be... I just... need... air," I say. After my breathing becomes more stable, I climb out of the well.

"Is he going to be okay?" Blaze asks while picking up the watch with his mouth. Ew! I guess I shouldn't tell the guy how I got that up here. Avia looks at me, and I nod.

"Yeah, he'll be fine, he just needs a minute to catch his breath," Avia says.

"Okay, well thank you for your help! I'll see you at the guild later with your reward," Blaze says.

"Don't lose that watch again!" I say as he begins to walk away. I would hate to have to get it for him again.

"Don't worry, I've learned my lesson," Blaze says without facing me. He continues to walk away; Avia and I watch him silently until he's gone.

"So, what's up with this fountain anyways? Why is there money in there?" I ask.

"Oh, well everyone gets one wish on the fountain, but if you want the wish to come true, then you have to throw money in there. Any amount will do. It's a town tradition!" Avia says.

"So have you already used your wish?" I ask.

"Yeah," Avia says.

"Has it come true? What was it?"

"Well, basically, I wished for you." I blush.

"Huh?"

"Well, I was too cowardly to actually create a rescue team, let alone become an apprentice, but I knew that if I had a friend to be on a rescue team with me I could overcome my fears. My wish came true when you agreed to be on a rescue team with me, Jiro. After a day of failure I made my wish at the well. After that, I went to the beach and met you. You were a wish come true." That's very flattering. I was the answer to her dreams...

"S-so a-anyways. D-do you want to head b-back to the guild?" I'm too nervous to talk normally.

"We should probably get you dry first, you're so cold that you can hardly speak." I'll accept that excuse. There's probably some truth to it.

After I dry off, Avia and I head back to the guild to collect our reward.

Once we reach the second floor of the guild, we find Blaze and Chatot there waiting for us.

"Thanks so much for getting my grandfather's watch back. It means everything to me!" Blaze says. He gives Avia some shiny coins, which appear to be a currency of some sort, and a few drinks.

"2,000 poke! That's incredible! We can have all of this money?" Avia says.

"Of course. That's nothing compared to what this watch is worth. Well, I'll see you two later. Happy adventuring!" Blaze exits the guild with a smile on his face. Huh, it looks like we actually made him happy. Well, I'm glad that we could brighten up his day.

"This is crazy! We're rich, Jiro! All of a sudden we're rich!" Note to self, 2,000 pokes is the equivalent to rich.

"Well done team," Chatot says, "now hand that money over, if you'd please."

"Excuse me?" Avia says as Chatot takes our money, "most of the money from jobs goes to the Guildmaster, you see. And your team's share of the money comes out to this much." Chatot hands Avia some coins, but there's significantly less than there was before.

"Huh? We only keep 200 pokes? But that's... That's not fair!" Avia says. That's ten percent! Well, it's not like I do this for the money, anyways. I do it for the title of a hero... apparently.

"Well that's the guild's rule. You simply have to accept it," Chatot says.

"Hmph..."

* * *

After a good meal, Avia and I head to bed. We both lie down in our respective beds.

"Jiro, are you up?" Avia says after five unsuccessful minutes of trying to get to sleep on my part.

"What's up?" I ask.

"How are you doing? You seemed to be in a decent amount of pain after going in the well," Avia says.

"Oh, I'm fine now, but thanks for asking," I say. Avia sighs.

"Today was pretty crazy, wasn't it? I wish that I could have helped you in some way." She must feel terrible about that. She's the one who wanted to do all of this, after all, and she wasn't even able to help. I've got to say something to make her feel better.

"There'll be days when I have to face things alone, and there'll be days when you, yourself have to face things alone. Today was just my day, but who knows? Tomorrow you may very well be yours."

"Yeah, I guess. Nevertheless, I'm glad our first job turned out so well. I would have been nice to keep all of that money, but I guess that's just the price of training. We can't do anything about it."

"Yeah. But hey, we're training for a reason. There'll be a day when we can take all of the money that we want, but to get to that point, we need to become stronger."

"Yeah... You know, what really made me happy was being thanked by Blaze! I loved the look on his face when the watch came up from the well," Avia yawns. "I'm getting pretty tired. I'm going to sleep. Let's try our best again tomorrow. Sleep tight, Jiro." Soon Avia's breathing falls into a rhythmic pattern. I focus on that pattern, and try to match my breathing to it.

Before I know it, I too am asleep.


	4. Chapter 2 part 3:Ginger

I'm in a meadow. There's a slight breeze, but a pleasant one. It's a perfect temperature. But where am I? I don't remember this place.

"Well hello. I'm glad you could make it. My name is Ginger," I hear a calm, feminine sounding voice say.

"Where are you? Who are you? Where am I?" I ask. I look around, but there's no one around.

"So many questions... Tsk, tsk. You're in the land somewhere between reality and dreams, if that makes any sense," the voice says.

"No, that makes no sense at all," I say.

"Well that's okay. You'll understand what I mean eventually. Anyways, I just came to see how you're settling in. Did we- er... did you end up with a good rescue team partner?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Good. That's all that matters right now.

"Why do you care, though? Are you related to Minna?"

"Yes! She's my si... Whoops. Not supposed to tell you this yet. You'll know who and what we are in due time, and how we're related. You probably know by now, though. The information has already slipped. I guess this is why I'm never sent to actually talk to anyone." So she's loose with information... I wonder if I can get anything else out of her.

"Well that's a shame. I think that you should talk to others more often."

"Oh, stop trying to flatter me! Plus, I'm not your guide anyways. I'm just filling in for Minna. She's busy." If I ask a direct question she's not going to give the me an answer. I need to think of a way to get this out of her without asking direct questions.

"She's too busy to have time for me? Some guide she is."

"Hey! Don't insult her like that! Sure she's busy some times, and sure I'm alone, and being alone is scary... But she knows what she's doing! She's the one who can see what no one else can. Some times a little blind faith is a good idea! Now shut up! I'll tether this connection if you're not going to be nice!" It looks like I went about this the wrong way.

"I'm sorry. I guess I didn't realize how much she meant to you." The voice sighs.

"I accept your apology. But you'd better not insult her again!"

"I won't."

"Good. Things are more fun when everyone's friendly. Anyways, I was supposed to deliver a message. What was it? Well, I don't remember the exact wording. Basically, Minna says, "hi", and to stay patient. You won't get an opportunity to be a hero for a bit. Just keep getting stronger, and always be ready!"

"Thank for delivering the message. Is there anything else that you have to say?"

"This is all a dream!" A dream? She's... right. And just like that the world crumbles around me. I'm awake.


	5. Chapter 3 part 1:Kidnappers

The world slowly fades into reality. I look around and see that Avia's still sleeping. The sun rising outside of the window says that I woke up early. I'd say that I'm up an hour too early, maybe two. I'm not good at telling time based on the location of the sun.

I go back to my bed and lie down, trying to fall asleep again. I can't. My mind refuses to be tired, or to stop thinking. Eventually, I just stand back up. I look at Avia for a bit, watching her sleep so peacefully. That's not creepy, is it? I mean, I'm just watching her sleep because she's here.

After watching her for a bit, I walk out of the room, trying to be as careful as possible, so that I don't wake Avia. Once I exit the room, I walk straight for the lobby of the floor. I don't know what I plan to do there, but I go there anyways.

Once there, I look around. Everything is as it normally is, but it seems a tad odd to see the place without any other apprentices here.

"Can't sleep?" A male voice from behind me asks. I turn around to see a scyther standing behind me, looking at me. He's tall, I have to look up pretty far to look into his eyes.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," I say.

"So what's up, then? Are you nervous about your second day?" He asks.

"Nah, I just woke up early, and can't fall back asleep. So what are you doing up?"

"I always wake up early. Early to bed, early to rise, makes a pokemon healthy and wise, as they say. I'm Razor, what's your name?"

"My name's Jiro."

"Well it's nice to meet you, Jiro. How do you like being an apprentice so far?"

"It's good. So how long have you been an apprentice here?"

"A year, now."

"Wow, that's a while. So are you a solo rescue team, or do you have a partner?"

"I go alone. A teammate would only get in my way. It works for pokemon like you, who could actually get along with a partner, but I am not one of those pokemon."

"Huh. Yeah, I guess I can see how it could be problematic if you're not a team player. I think it's good though, that way you have different strengths to cover each others' weaknesses."

"Yes... I suppose. I have my weaknesses, I just can't deal with working with others very well."

"That's fine. We all work differently. I work in a team, and you work without one. That's just how we are."

Chatot walks out of the Guildmaster's room quietly and heads in the direction of Razor and me.

"You two are up early, I see. It's perfect, actually. I was just consulting with the guildmaster, and we need you two to go on a mission," Chatot says.

"Wait, like a mission together?" I ask.

"Chatot, you know that I work alone," Razor says.

"Yes, and that's problematic. If you're going to be a successful solo rescue team, you still need to know how to work with others. So, I saw it fit to give you Jiro to guide through the mission. And Jiro, this will be a great learning experience for you. You'll learn about how to deal with personalities other than Avia's. Plus, you'll be able to see the star apprentice in action," Chatot says.

"Are you sure that this is a good-" I start.

"There's no time to waste! We've got a criminal that simply must be brought to justice," Chatot says, "you know of the brothers Azuril and Marill, I assume?"

"Yeah, of course," Razor says.

"Well they've been kidnapped. The kidnapper fled to the Rocky Plateau. Your job is the bring them back, with the kidnapper as well," Chatot says.

"Well that sounds easy enough. Let's get going then, shall we?" Razor asks.

"Sure, I guess. But what will Avia do without me?" I ask.

"Don't worry about that now! There's pokemon to save!" Razor yells.

"Right, sorry," I say. And with that, I follow Razor outside of the guild.

We leave the town, not stopping to talk to anyone, or look at anything, and make our way to ruins of some sort.

There are white walls scattered everywhere, partially broken due to the passing of time, and there's pillars strewn across a floor of white bricks.

"Stick close to me," Razor says. We walk into the ruins, closely examining them with our eyes, until we come see a bag.

The bag seems to have something in it, something that moves. I'd say that it's probably Azuril and Marill. I don't know what else would be in a moving bag.

"Stay here. This could be a trap," Razor says. He slowly walks towards the bag.

When he gets near the bag, a sneasel jumps out from behind a pillar and tries to hit him with her claws. Razor blocks the attack with his arm, then swings his other arm at her. She dodges, however. This seems to be the makings of a good fight. I wish I could help, but I think I'd only get in the way.

The sneasel jumps up and tries to hit Razor in the face, but Razor ducks and tries to uppercut her. She rolls out of the way in the air (which I didn't even know was possible) and lands back on the ground safely.

"You're pretty good," the sneasel says. She winks at Razor.

"Complements from a kidnapper? Well this is something new. Shut up and die, would you?" Razor says.

"Sorry, I can't do that," the sneasel says. Razor swings his arms at her, but she rolls out of the way and jumps at his face. She claws it a few times and jumps down.

Razor can take a good clawing, but if that sneasel gets hit with his sword-like arms, then she's as good as ours. At least, that's the notion I get from how powerfully Razor seems to be swinging those arms of his.

"Stand still, will you!?" Razor yells. The sneasel winks at Razor again.

"Why don't you make me?" She says. Razor swings at her head, but she ducks. Soon after the first swing, though, Razor swings his second arm right into her body. The sneasel is knocked back a few feet, and to the ground. She gets up, clutching her side. "You're better than I had originally anticipated. Good. Maybe this match will actually be a bit of fun."

I feel a sharp claw digging into me. I try to look behind me, but before I can even react, all I can see is darkness. I try to move around, but my moving space is limited. I'm think I'm in a bag of some sort. I can hear Razor and the sneasel fighting, the slight chatter, the expressions of pain. I seem to get farther and farther away from it as time passes.

"Razor, help!" I yell. But there's no reply, at least, not one that I can hear.

"Stop trying. You've lost, there's nothing you can do about it now. Don't worry, though, we have no more need for the little brothers we took. We'll deliver them back safely with your scyther friend." I hear a feminine founding voice say.

"But what about me? Why do you want to take me? What's going to happen to me?" I ask.

"Nothing too serious. You'll live, at least. Now shut up. You're hard enough to carry without you distracting me, and we've got a long way to go," the voice says.

"What are you going to do to me!?" I yell. The bag opens, and a yellow dust enters before it quickly closes again.

Suddenly, my body feels heavy. I can't... Stay awake... That must have been some kind of sleeping powder...

My body continues to feel more and more heavy. It's like I'm made out of stones. And before I know it, I'm unconscious.


	6. Chapter 3 part 2:A Battle of Wits

I open my eyes to see mostly darkness. After blinking a few times, though, my eyes adjust to the darkness and allow me to see my surroundings. I'm in a cave of some sort. I see the two sneasels who worked to kidnap me staring at me as I stand up. They're leaning against the damp walls of the cave with their arms crossed.

"Your friend is safe back at your guild, as promised. You should be thankful, we could have killed him," one of the sneasels says.

"Why didn't you? Not that I don't appreciate it," I say.

"We're mercenaries, not murderers. We kill if need be, but I'd prefer to have no blood on my claws," the other sneasel says.

"Well I think that's nice. Can I leave now?" I ask. The sneasels laugh.

"No, no you can't. You can try, but just think about this for a minute. One of us beat the scyther friend of yours, and you're certainly not as tough as he is. You could try to escape, but do you really think that you could fight through both of us? And you can't outrun us, either. Even if you did, you would get lost within minutes. Our client doesn't want you dead, so you're safe here. At least here, there's a guarantee of living," one the sneasels says.

"Why, what's out there? Trees?" I ask.

"It looks like someone's got his sassy on today," one of the sneasels says. She moves close to me, so that our faces are almost touching. "Have you ever fought something twenty times your height and strength? There's scolipedes out there, eevee So unless you plan on dying today, you shouldn't even bother trying to escape." She backs away from me.

"Okay then," I say.

"So what's your name?" One of the sneasels asks.

"Why do you care?" I say.

"We're going to be here for a while, we might as well know what to call each other. I'm Mira, and this is my partner, Syta," one of the sneasels says.

"I'm Jiro," I say.

"So what's so special about him anyways? A double-kidnapping seems pretty elaborate, and at the same time, so stupidly hard to make work correctly. How did the client even know that the plan would work?" Syta says.

"It's not our place to question, it's out place to do. It's better than having to come up with our own plan of how to capture him while avoiding the guild's power," Mira says.

"May I ask who the 'client' you speak of is? I'm interested, especially because I have no idea what makes me special enough to kidnap," I say.

"I'm sorry, but knowing who the client is before they come to pick you up is a big no-no. The pokemon who hired us wishes to remain anonymous, and is having an affiliate pick you up," Mira says.

"Well that's just crazy," I say.

"I don't really care how crazy it is if we're getting paid," Syta says.

"I guess that's the life of a mercenary. Always living for the money," I say. Syta laughs.

"You don't understand. We're not doing this to get rich," Syta says.

"So why are you doing it, then? What could you possibly need money for so badly that you're willing to resort to kidnapping?" I ask.

"It's none of your business," Mira says.

"So how long until this 'affiliate' comes anyways?" I ask.

"I don't know. It could be thirty seconds, it could be several hours. The client only told us that the affiliate would be here today, nothing more, nothing less. Are you sure you don't know what's so special about you? Think about it. Did you hook up with the leader of some gang or something? Or maybe you have superpowers?" Mira asks. All I can think of is that I'm a human. But how would anyone else know about that?

"If you can't tell me about the client, then I can't tell you about myself," I say.

"Well played, little eevee, well played. I guess any questions we ask are going to be trades of information, aren't they?" Mira says.

"Yep," I say, sticking my toungue out at her.

"Here's a good place to start, are you single? We both are," Syta says.

"I am as well," I say. There's got to be a way to get more information from them through this. But how?

"What kinds of mercenary missions do you normally do? I'm part of a rescue team, so I rescue pokemon... or something," I say.

"We normally steal things, or help to fight someone. Sometimes we fight to protect the innocent. We're not evil. I want to make sure that you know that. We're not evil, we just do whatever we're hired to do. Whether that's protecting the innocent, kidnapping, or murder," Mira says.

"Well I'm glad to hear that you occasionally fight for the right causes," I say.

"So, do you have a parter to fight with? Is that scyther your partner?" Syta asks.

"What info do I get out of it?" I ask. Mira thinks for a minute.

"I have a younger sister," she says. Hm... Maybe she needs money for her little sister? No, if that were true, then why would Syta be with her? Maybe they need money for different things, and are working together to get that money? I guess that could be the case. I wonder why they want to know about me. They're probably trying to get information from me too. It's a battle of wits, then.

"The scyther isn't my partner. I have a female partner," I say.

"Oh, a hot girl to work with, eh?" Syta says. I blush.

"Let me guess, you just stare at her all day instead of actually getting work done?" Mira says. She and Syta laugh. "Don't worry, we're just messing with you. There's no reason that we can't be friendly."

"Yeah, no reason at all. Except that you kidnapped me!" I yell.

"Oh yeah. I forgot about that. Well, being angry isn't going to help you. What do you want from us? We can't set you free, we're powerless here," Mira says.

"Powerless? You could set me free, you idiots!" I yell again.

"Hardly. We're slaves to the money. Do you think we like kidnapping, or murdering others? We don't, Jiro. We don't do this without good reasons. Maybe one day you'll understand that good pokemon sometimes need to make choices that seem bad at the time for the good of the future," Syta says.

"You dare call yourself good! You murder for money! That's not a justifiable action! You two are crazy, thinking that you are good when you murder for your own selfish desires!" Syta looks at Mira.

"He's getting riled up. Should we make this easier for him?" Syta asks.

"Let's give him one more chance. If he doesn't calm down, then yes, feel free," Mira says. I take a deep breath before responding, I don't want them to do whatever they have planned for me. I need to know more.

"So you said that the client doesn't want to kill me, right? Does he or she want to harm me in any way?" I ask. Mira shrugs.

"All I was told is that you weren't going to be killed. It's extra for that, and the client didn't pay extra. So no, I don't know if you're going to be safe. I hope that you will be, though. You're annoying, but you seem kind at heart," Mira says.

"You're getting all sappy again. Don't get attached to the prisoner, you remember what happened the last time you did that," Syta says.

"Yeah, I do... Just knock the prisoner out right now, I don't need to talk to him any more," Mira says. I've got to think of something quick, or they'll knock me out! Think brain, think!

"It's your sister, isn't it? The reason that you're doing all of this," I say. Well that just slipped out.

"Yes, now you finally understand," Mira says. Syta grabs my legs and pins me down. I try to struggle, but she's too strong. Mira sprinkles a yellow powder on my face, and my body begins to feel heavy.

"Goodbye, Jiro. I wish you the best," Mira says. I try to respond, but I find myself unable to. I... can't hold on to my... consciousness...

And then I'm asleep once again.


	7. Chapter 3 part 3:Another Dark Cave

I wake up to another dark place. Another one? Seriously? What is it with these pokemon and dark places? Why can't one want to bring me to a flower garden for a tea party or something? Is that too much to ask? Just a tea party, or looking at the clouds? Anything's better than dark, creepy rooms.

"Oh, so you're awake. Your eyes should adjust soon," A voice says. I blink a few times, and my eyes do adjust. To see a gengar's face just centimeters away from mine! I scream in shock, and jump backwards.

"I don't see what's so special about you," the gengar says. By his voice, I'd say that he's a guy.

"So you aren't the one who sent the sneasels to kidnap me?" I ask.

"Oh, no I am. I just wanted to see Minna's newest pawn. I must say, the sisters seem to be getting desperate. You seem like just a normal eevee in every way," the gengar says. So who the heck is this guy, anyways? "I suppose you're wondering about me. I'm Gerrard, the knight of the night. I'm not going to kill you, in case you're wondering. I can't harm you...yet. I'm just curious. It's not every day that you get to meet a 'hero'. Ha! That's a laugh."

"What's so funny? I could kill you right now, if I wanted to," I say.

"As if! Do you know why they call me the knight of the night? Because I've spent my whole life training to be able to kill punks like you. You're lucky that I have orders not to kill you, or you'd already be dead. I don't get why they don't let me kill you right now. It would solve everything. Well, not everything, but it would put the sisters in a bad situation. 'Chosen ones' may not be too uncommon, but they sure are a pain to deal with! And they've already invested so much time into you. What has it been, five dreams now?"

"Two..."

"Only two! They're not even pretending to think that you can accomplish anything! I just wonder when they're going to ditch you and chose the next 'chosen one'. It's hardly a chosen one if one is more like one-thousand, though."

"So, do you want to tell me any more about all of this? You sound like you're opposing Minna and Ginger."

"Ha! You don't even know about all of them! This is just sad. Do yourself a favor, kid. If you don't want to die, don't listen to them. They're just using you as a pawn who thinks that he's a king in this little chess game that they're playing. You're nothing but a stalling tactic for them. Get out alive, kid, run for you lif.! And if you do decide to play their stupid little game, don't evolve into the final eeveelution. It's a mistake that you never want to make. You'll be completely under their control if you do that. You do like your own free will, don't you?"

"I guess, yeah."

"Then don't trust them. They'll tell you everything under the moon and the sun to get you to play their little game. If you want to live, though, take my advice, and stay out of it."

"But how do I know that I can trust you?"

"Because I could just disobey orders and kill you right now, but I'm not. In fact, I'm setting you free. Go on, the exit is just behind me. Get along, you little scamp."

"Why would you spend so much money on kidnappers if you were just going to set me free?"

"I just wanted to give you a fair warning about what you're getting into."

"And how did you know that they had chosen me?"

"It's not hard to tell. Once you learn the signs, it's pretty darn obvious."

"What are the signs?"

"I need to take a nap, so shut up and get out, will you?" I sigh, and walk out of the cave. The light is stunning, and it takes my eyes a bit to adjust.

Now how do I get back home? I guess the first thing to do is find civilization, once I do that, I should be able to figure out where the guild is. And the town it's in is... Is... Oh dear. I can't even remember the town!

I look around; I'm a forest of sorts. I don't see a path, though. I guess I should just start by walking in some random direction, and hoping that it end me up on a path to a town.

After walking for a bit, I come across a river. Most civilizations are built near rivers, right? So if I follow this river I should find a civilization... maybe. I look at the river, seeing the reflection of my eevee face looking back at me.

Is this really who I am now? I'm an eevee? Is this my life? Caught up in some confusing battle of dream walkers and hired kidnappers in an unfamiliar body, just fighting to keep my head above water?

Well then, that's stupid. Why can't life just be more simple? Or at least give me a hint? I just... I don't know what to do any more. What's the point of it all? Was I turned into a pokemon with good reason, or was it just a stalling tactic, like Gerrard said? I look away from my reflection in disgust.

Why can't I just trust someone? Anyone? Well, I guess there's Avia. She's almost gotten me killed, but she's never seemed to be a liar. That's what I'll do, then. I'll stick to her, and deal with everything else as it happens.

"Duck!" A feminine sounding voice says. I duck and see a bunch of energy that look like needles flying above my head. I turn to see a skorupi looking at me, growling in the way that skorupis do. But if it was trying to hurt me, then who told me to duck? The skorupi is suddenly surrounded by a purple energy, and launched into the air. After a few seconds, it's gone from my vision.

A few seconds later, I feel someone touching me. Well, hugging me in the way that four-legged creatures do. Two legs on them. It's hard for quadrupeds to hug. I turn my head to see Avia.

"I'm so glad you're okay! You have no idea how worried we all were! After Chatot told me about your mission, and Razor's body was delivered to the guild without yours... Well, I'm glad to see that you're okay," Avia says.

"So were you the one who launched the skorupi into the air? I didn't know you could do that!" I say.

"No, that was my new friend, Cyria. She's the one who helped me find you," Avia says. She stops hugging me and uses one of her legs to point at a kirlia who smiles at us. "Don't be a stranger, Cyria! Come over and introduce yourself to Jiro!" Cyria walks over to us calmly.

"Hi, my name is Cyria! I'm a new apprentice at the guild. I understand that you're Jiro, Avia's well beloved partner, right?" I blush.

"I-I'm not sure about the 'well beloved' part, but I am him, yes," I say.

"Don't be silly, Jiro! Of course you're well beloved! That's why the Guildmaster was so worried when he found out that you were gone," Avia says, shuttering, "you don't even want to hear how angry he got with Razor. He sure was mad..."

"Yeah, it's not a good way to start your first day, hearing the Guildmaster yell at one of his best apprentices," Cyria adds.

"He's really that worried about me?" I ask.

"Yeah. So what happened to you, anyways? Were you off fighting some dragonite to save a village or something epic like that?" Avia asks.

"Don't I wish. I was kidnapped, and brought to some weird gengar guy who says some things... Odd things..." I say. I can't let them know about this whole 'chosen one' business, not yet, at least.

"What kinds of things, if you don't mind my asking?" Cyria asks.

"I... wasn't really paying attention. Something about his sisters being liars, maybe? And something about the final evolution of eevee. How crazy, right?" I say.

"Yeah, that is really quite odd. So how did you escape?" Cyria asks.

"He just let me go. That guy's off his rocker. He hired some sneasels to kidnap me just so he could rant to me about his sisters. How stupid of him," I say.

"Well, let's get you back to the guild. You must be pretty shaken up," Cyria says.

And with that, they lead me back to the guild. By the time we reach it, it's already night time, so Avia and I head to sleep.

When we reach our beds, I find myself falling asleep instantly.


	8. Chapter 4 part 1:Roleplaying: part 1

**For this chapter, and possibly future chapters, depending on how this goes. All reviewers will be personally thanked by one of the AMR characters via PM. Because why not?**

"Wake up, slackers!" Loe yells. Avia, Cyria and I all stand up. Wait, Cyria was sleeping in our room? Since when? Did she come in when we both were sleeping? Ignoring that, we all rush to the lobby to say our morning cheers.

"Before we begin," Chatot says just seconds after we arrive, "I would like to inform you all that we will not be going on any rescue missions today. There is a terrible lightning storm right above our heads, and we would hate for any of you to get hurt. Don't fret, though, today is a great day to get to know your fellow guild members better. We have three pokemon who are fairly new, so this would be a perfect time to introduce yourselves. Now that that's out of the way, let's begin our morning cheers."

The voices of the guild members all become one collective voice. This time, Avia and I are part of that voice. It feels nice to be a part of a group like this. After the morning cheers, the guild members seem to immediately disperse into their own little groups, leaving Avia, Cyria and me to become our own little group.

"I don't think I ever thanked you properly for saving me from that skorupi, Cyria. Thank you," I say.

"Oh, it was no big deal, really. I'm just glad to help," Cyria replies.

"So, I'm kinda curious as to what exactly is going on. Is Cyria part of our team now, or is she just another guild member?" I ask.

"It's up to her," Avia says.

"Really? You would let me join your team?" Cyria asks.

"Of course. The more friends the merrier, as they say," I say.

"Then I would be happy to. Thank you for inviting me," Cyria says. It occurs to me that both of my rescue team partners are girls... I'm not sure if I should be happy about that or not.

"So where are you from? I've lived here my whole life, and I don't remember seeing you," Avia says.

"I'm from a little town called Inogawa Center. You probably haven't heard of it. It's hidden from most pokemon. Being a training ground of psychic pokemon and all," Cyria says.

"Hey," an electrike says, walking up to us with a plusle and a minum following close behind, "so you three are the newbies, right? Well it's nice to meet you, my name is Spark, my plusle comrade's name is Plusa, and my minum comrade is called Mino."

"It's nice to meet you," Avia says, "My name is Avia, my eevee friend is called Jiro, and our kirlia friend is called Cyria."

"So let me get this straight, Jiro, you get these two beautiful girls all to yourself? I hope you know how lucky you are," Spark says. I blush.

"Don't mind him, he's just joking around with you," Plusa says.

"That's how he breaks in all of the newbies. Mild discomfort. Oh, he's so amazing," Mino says flatly.

"I don't appreciate your sarcasm," Spark says.

"Am I being sarcastic, though? Let's be honest, you have no idea," Mino says flatly.

"Does he always talk like that?" Avia ask.

"Most of the time, yes," Plusa replies.

"Well anyways, we're going to head off, but it was nice meeting you," Spark says, he winks at us before turning around and walking away, Mino and Plusa following closely behind.

"Well that was..." I start.

"Awkward," Cyria finishes.

"Yeah. So that's team Volt, I guess. They're famous for... Well, just being odd, really. Mino and Spark are pretty moody, Plusa's really nice, though. I remember when she and I were just kids..." Avia says, trailing off.

"So, on a completely different note, and if you don't mind my asking, are you two dating?" Cyria asks. I blush. I look at Avia, to see if she's blushing as well, but it's hard to tell, being that her fur is red.

"No, um, we're both single. We're just friends," I say.

"Oh. Sorry to make that awkward, I just wasn't sure," Cyria says.

"It's fine, really. It's good to know that kind of information about the pokemon whom you're going to risk your life with. So speaking of that, what about you?" Avia asks.

"I'm single, but hopefully I won't be for too long," Cyria says.

"Do you have anyone specific in mind?" Avia asks. Cyria smiles.

"Yes. Yes, I do. I won't tell you who he is, though, that's a secret," Cyria says, winking at us.

"So what are we going to do all day? Are we really all just going to sit around?" I ask.

"We should play a game!"Cyria says.

"What kind of game?" I ask.

"Do you like word puzzles?" Cyria asks.

"Sure," Avia says.

"Okay then, let's have ourselves a little game. I'm going to give you two an puzzle which you will have to solve as a team. Does that sound fair?" Cyria asks.

"Sure, I'm great at puzzles!" Avia says.

"And I probably am not, but I'm willing to give it a shot," I say.

"I'm sure you'll do fine. Anyways, here's your puzzle. I should make note that this is a puzzle that changes as you give answers. There's not one definite path, but you do need to answer fast, it's a situational puzzle. It's like a rescue mission, but just not in real life," Cyria says, smiling at us, "You find yourself in a mystery dungeon. Only this mystery dungeon is not like most of them. There's pits of fire on one trail, and ice cold water on another. Which one do you take?"

"We'll take the trail with the pits of fire. I can't function if it gets too cold," Avia says. I give her a nod of agreement.

"As you walk down the path with the pits of fire, you can hear someone screaming. Do you want to move towards the scream, or away from the scream?" Cyria asks.

"Towards the scream," Avia says.

"You find yourself in a room, of sorts. In the corner of the room, you find a young pichu. Only he doesn't look like a normal pichu. His fur is red, and his eyes are black," Cyria says.

"We try and talk to him," Avia says.

"He turns to you and laughs. Then he shoots a bolt of electricity that ends up right next to Avia's ear, barely missing her," Cyria says.

"We leave the room," Avia says.

"You try to leave the room, but you find that the entrance you used is no longer there. You are trapped inside the room with the pichu," Cyria says.

"We ask him if he has any friends or family around," I say.

"'No,' he replies weakly," Cyria says.

"We ask if there's anyone around to take care of him at all," Avia says.

"'No, what, were you not listening? I hate to repeat myself,' he says, firing a bolt of electricity which lightly grazes Avia's leg, 'what do you want?'" Cyria says.

"We want to know if we can help you in any way," I say.

"'No, no you cannot. I am too far broken to be helped. I can't fight it for much longer, leave now... or...' the pichu says," Cyria says.


	9. Chapter 4 part 2:Roleplaying part 2

"Or what?" Avia asks.

"And with that, the pichu kills you both with his lighting. Congratulations, you're both dead," Cyria says.

"Woo! Yeah, we did it! We're so good at this," I say jokingly. Cyria laughs.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm a horrible pokemon to have host the fictional dungeony thing," Cyria says,

"We're all horrible at this, as it turns out. I guess that's what practice is for," Avia says.

"Yes, practice makes perfect, or something like that," Cyria says.

"I don't believe in perfect, perfection is unreachable. There's always room for improvement. That's why everyone's beatable in a fight. It's good news, at least for us... No one's unbeatable," I say.

"Yeah, all we need to do is train really hard, and we can beat anybody!" Avia says.

"I'm not sure if I would go that far. Each of us has a limit to the amount of potential we can reach, and with that limit, sure we can fight of most foes, probably all that we'll ever see, but there are foes too great to fight with our given potential. Some pokemon are just too strong, it would seem, to be fought off by the likes of us," Cyria says. Well, I completely disagree, but arguing with her isn't really going to help anything.

"So what should we do now? We've hardly passed much time," Avia says.

"Yeah, it's a shame we can't be out and exploring," a voice, female by the sound, says. I turn around and see a skitty looking at us. "The name's Ica, and you must be the famed Jiro and crew."

"Famed?" Avia asks.

"Jiro and crew?" I ask.

"Yeah, Jiro and crew. All right, so you're not really that famed, but you have a Jiro, and this is his team. So at least I wasn't lying about you all being Jiro and crew. Jiro is the leader of your team, right?" Ica asks.

"No, Avia here's the leader," I say, pointing to Avia.

"Yep, Jiro's the leader," Avia says at the same time.

"Well is he the leader or isn't he?" Ica asks. I look at Avia.

"This is your dream, shouldn't you be the leader?"

"No. You're the one of us who is a natural leader. I know it sounds odd for me to say this, but I saw it in you the minute I met you," Avia says. I turn back to Ica.

"I guess I am," I say.

"So are you tough, then?" Ica asks.

"Um," I say, looking to Avia who shrugs, "kinda?"

"Then we'll have to fight sometime, it could be fun. I wish we could do it here, but I would hate to break something important, or make Chatot angry. Don't worry though, there'll be a day for us to fight, and I look forward to it. So what's your team name, anyways?" Ica asks.

"We're team Beyond," I say.

"Beyond what?"

"That's our full team name. We're team Beyond."

"But is there a reason that you're called that? Is there something that you want to go beyond?"

"It was kinda just the first name that came to mind... I didn't know we had to choose one."

"What did you assume, that rescue teams just go unnamed? Gosh, where did you grow up, a cave? How could you not have known?" I can't tell her that I'm actually a human. So I guess I need to lie. Well, I guess I should get used to it. Lying is the only thing I can do when other pokmeon ask about my past... Or I can claim that I have amnesia! That would solve all of my problems! I think...

"I have amnesia. I woke up from being unconscious on the beach a few days ago, not remembering anything but my name." I see Cyria looking at me oddly from the corner of my eye, and Avia smiling at me sweetly.

"That's not good. So you don't remember your friends, your family, anything?"

"I didn't even remember that I was an eevee until I took a good look at myself."

"Oh Arceus, that's horrible... If there's anything I can do to help, feel free to tell me."

"You don't even know me, yet you're so willing to help..."

"Of course, I'm a rescue team member, did you expect any different?" She winks at me.

"So what's your rescue team's name, anyways?"

"Team Iriac. We are the best!"

"So there's more pokemon on your team?"

"Yes, there's also Ri, and Spiral. They went on an undercover mission without me."

"Why didn't they take you with them?"

"Because they're undercover at a fighting dojo. Ri's a riolu, so he's able to go. He's allowed one guest, and so he chose Spiral, who is better suited for the job. There's no pokemon better than a ghost pokemon for sneaking around."

"So what have you been doing while they've been gone?"

"Just some ordinary rescue missions. I may not have my team with me, but I can still help pokemon in danger."

"So when are they coming back?"

"Hopefully soon. They've been gone for a week, so they should be back soon. Assuming that they didn't screw anything up."

"Shouldn't you be worried?"

"Nah, we screw things up all the time. Ri always figures something out. And if not, he's always got Spiral with him. Those two never fail, they can't... They just can't...So anyways, what about you all?"

"What about us?"

"What are you all like? What are your specialties?"

"Um... We just became a rescue team recently, so I can't say that I really know."

"Well then, take a guess. And as the team leader, you don't get any help. Consider it like a team bonding exercise. Sure, it's not, but we're going to pretend that it is!"

"Why does it matter if we call it a team bonding exercise?"

"Because shut up. Now, then, are you going to play the game or not?"

"Um...Okay? My specialties are leadership and tactics, Avia's the team spirit and information gatherer, and Cyria's our main fighter... I have no idea if this is accurate." I look at Cyria, who shrugs.

"Well, you tried, and that's what's important. You've got to keep the specialties of your team members in mind." She winks at me, and walks away. She soon strikes up a conversation with a sunflora on the other side of the room.

"Was I close?" I ask when Ica starts talking with the sunflora. You know, Ica was kinda cute... When I think about it, pretty much every girl here is. I guess I shouldn't complain, it's a good thing, right? Being surrounded by attractive girls isn't bad...So why do I feel uncomfortable when I think about it? I don't know, it's a bit odd, I guess. While I'm at it, it's also pretty strange that, as a human being in a past life, I can find pokemon attractive. I guess that's an instinct of being an eevee. Yeah, because that makes sense...

"With your guesses? I guess I'm pretty tough, and I'm the only one of us who has evolved. Plus, I have psychic powers, which are pretty strong. As for your being a tactician and leader, I'd say that sounds fairly accurate," Cyria says.

"And my being the team spirit sounds good. As for information gathering, I guess I do know many things about stuff around here, at least, compared to you two. What with you having amnesia and Cyria having lived what I assume was a very secluded life. Am I correct?" Avia asks.

"Yeah. So it looks like our dear leader does know us quite well after all!" Cyria exclaims.

After talking for a while, we decide to head to bed early, so that we can be well rested and ready for the what the next day may bring.. I find it surprisingly easy to fall asleep. I'm starting to like being an eevee. At the very least, I have some good friends with me. I'm not sure what my life was like as a human... do I want to go back?

I don't know... I'm tired. I can figure this out later...

And with that, I fell asleep.


	10. Chapter 5 part 1:Nothing Important

"It's time to wake up!" A voice which I know to be Loe's yells. I open my eyes, looking at the room around me. I like sleeping here at the guild, it's nice to be with friends and all that. Waking up, on the other hand...

I feel myself floating. What's happening? I try to move around, but Why am I...I look down and see Cyria. She smiles at me.

"What's this for?" I ask.

"Sorry, I just wanted to make sure that you were awake. I figured that the best way was to have a little fun," she says. She winks at me. She knows that her logic makes no sense. It's okay though, I don't really mind being levitated too much. She slowly levitates me back to the ground. I smile at her.

"You know that makes no sense. Shaking me would be so much simpler," I say.

"Yes, but this way was more fun," she says, winking at me. I laugh lightly.

"Wait, what happened?" Avia asks as she gets up.

"That's not important. We've got to go to the morning meetingy thing," Cyria says. She runs out of our room, to the lobby of the floor, Avia and I follow closely behind. She's fast... She's definitely superior to Avia and me physically.

After the morning cheers, Chatot says the announcements. At first it's the usual stuff. He pauses, and just as we're all about to go, he continues to talk.

"Furthermore, a guild expedition will be taking place soon. The guildmaster and I will be choosing the pokemon who will participate over the coming week or so. So try your best to impress us!" A guild expedition? What are those like? I would try to figure it out, but I just woke up... I'm not good at this sort of thing when I'm still partially asleep. "Since we have some new guild members, I will explain how guild expeditions work. The Guildmaster and I will choose the guild members who will go on the expedition. I won't reveal where we're going yet, but it's a land hidden in mystery. Then we'll split up into groups. Usually you'll have another team going with you. Safety in numbers and all that. Your team will have to work together and chose your own path to the location where we will all meet up a few days later. Once everyone has reached the designated location, we will explore, and try to solve the mysteries of it. The whole guild - - well, the members that are chosen - - will act as a team, and solve the mysteries of the hidden land. That's all, you may now attend to your duties." Most of the apprentices disperse, but I stand still, thinking.

So that's what an expedition is. It sounds like fun. Do we really have a shot at being chosen, though? I mean, maybe Cyria does, but what about Avia and me? I don't think we're as strong as the other apprentices, I know we're certainly not as strong as Sythe. I guess all I can do is try my best and hope that it all works out! If not, though, it would be interesting to be in the guild without many of the apprentices here. Do the guildmaster and Chatot join us as well? So many unanswered questions... I guess I'll find out all of this stuff eventually. I guess right now I should just focus on doing well in today's missions.

"A guild expedition already. We've got to do our best to impress the guildmaster!" Avia says. I was right, she is the team spirit. I feel more motivated just by hearing the energy behind her words.

"Yeah! We'll blow their minds!" I respond.

"And explore that hidden land!" Cyria adds.

"So what are we doing today, anyways?" I ask.

"The same thing as always. We're going to find something on the boards to do. We've got to go quickly, or all of the missions will be taken!" Avia exclaims. Cyria, Avia and I move and quickly as we can to the boards. When we get there, though, it's as we feared. The only missions left are D or E ranks. Too easy if we want to make a good impression on the guildmaster.

"This missions won't do. What do we do now?" Avia asks. What can we do? These missions aren't much alone. But what if we put them together? Let's see... there's three missions for the Beach Sea Cave. Perfect!

"One mission may not be enough, but what if we try doing three of them? There's three missions for the Beach Sea Cave, or whatever it's called. If we do all three, then it'll seem less pathetic, at least," I say.

"Great idea as always!" Cyria says.

"Yeah, if we do three missions, then we'll seem to be much better than if we do just one. And we'll be able to help more pokemon! But then there's the problem of time. Missions take time. Doing two missions alone would be enough of a time crunch," Avia says.

"We could split up and do one mission each. They seem easy enough, and we're all pretty strong. Plus, this way we could complete the three missions with no time crunch at all," I say.

"Okay then, let's chose our missions!" Avia says. She grabs the Beach Sea Cave missions from the board. "Okay then, there's two criminals, and one rescue. Does anyone have any preferences?"

"I'll take the toughest criminal; the D rank one," Cyria says.

"Okay then. So what about you, Jiro. Do you have any preference?" Avia asks.

"Not really. I'm fine with either," I say.

"Then I'll take the rescue mission, and you can have the other criminal," Avia says.

"Sounds good to me. Let's get going then, shall we?" I say.

"We shall," Avia says.

The three of us walk out of the guild and to the beach where I first met Avia.

"Remember when we first met each other, Jiro? It was right here, on this very beach. You seemed really weird at first. I remember I thought that you were trying to rob me at first. I didn't trust you... I'm sorry for that. After all we've been through, I realize how wrong I was..." Avia says, "sorry, this isn't the time for this. We should be focusing on the mission. I don't know why I'm being so sentimental all of a sudden. Anyways, let's get going. We'll all meet out here when we're done with our missions. If one of us doesn't come out, then we'll know that something's wrong," Avia says. And without another word, Cyria races into the dungeon.

"Well someone's eager today," I say. Avia giggles.

And with that, Avia and I walk, side by side, into the dungeon.


	11. Chapter 5 part 2:Trap Master part 1

Floor three. Floor three. I just have to remember that I have to get to floor three. I should be close by now, I'm on floor two, and I've been here a while. Where are those darn stairs? I don't have time to be lost, what if the girls finish before me? I would hate to keep them waiting.

After walking for a few more minutes the stairs finally come into view. It took them long enough. Stupid stairs, you really should have tried to be closer to the other stairs.

I descend the stairs, and immediately see the pokemon I'm looking for. Chiara the chingling. Wanted for theft of some precious art piece or something. I really hadn't bothered to read the wanted poster past the reward. 5,000 poke was all I needed to know. I begin to walk up to Chiara, trying to figure out my first move. She notices me and laughs.

"You're stupid enough to chase me, and alone too! This must be my lucky day, the only pokemon after me is a pathetic little eevee. You certainly aren't smart. Surely you must have read of my mastery of traps, and yet you walk towards me without any signs of caution at all! You must be new to this, so let me fill you in. Don't be an idiot! Or do, it makes my job easier, that's for sure," Chiara says. Mastery of traps? Maybe I should have read the wanted poster more carefully. This is a D ranked mission, though, how tough can she be? She must be bluffing, or exaggerating, at least. Still, I should be careful. I can hear a sizzling sound near me. And footsteps. Another pokemon! I look to my left and see small bits of fire coming at me. I can't backpedal fast enough to dodge them, so I'm going to have to move forward. I charge at Chiara, managing to avoid the fire coming at me. She smiles. I can feel my front paws falling.

A pitfall trap? I'll have to bet everything on the idea that it is. I jump using my hind legs, but it's not a graceful jump. Chiara moves out of my way, and I end up crashing into the wall. I land on my feet, but they can't catch my fall. My legs slip underneath me. When I look down, I notice that my legs are on water. That must be why I slipped, and because she levitates, it doesn't affect her. At least the whole floor isn't covered with water... I stand up carefully and turn around. I see a hole in front of me. I was right, it was a pitfall trap.

Chiara floats away from me and to the other side of the room. Next to her I see a tepig. Two against one. Well I guess that explains where the fire came from.

"I won't let you hurt Chiara! You'll have to kill me before you lay a paw on her!" The tepig, who sounds like a girl, yells. Darn it, not only do I have to deal with a 'master' of traps, but I also have to deal with a dedicated friend. Not to mention, the tepig has a ranged attack, so she can keep a distance, but I need to get right next to her to attack. And then there's Chiara, who probably has some kind of psychic move, which is bound to be ranged. Plus, there's the water I'm standing on, which will slow my movement slightly until I can get out of it. And as if that weren't enough, there's a wall behind me, and a hole in front of me. They're probably betting that I'll move to either the left of the right, so they've probably got their ranged moves aimed to the left and right respectively. They're just waiting for the first sign that I'm going to run, and they'll strike. They've set themselves up well... but not well enough.

I jump over the hole and charge towards Chiara. I was right, they weren't expecting that. I can see it by the expression on the tepig's face. As I charge toward Chiara, I can see the tepig moving to block my attack. She shots some small bits of fire at me again, but this time I'm ready. It was obvious that she was planning something like that. I move to the left of the flames and slam into her.

"Ebony, you've got to think before you act! This eevee's not an idiot! You're being too predictable!" Chiara yells to the tepig, who flies backwards from my attack. Chiara charges at me, knocking me back. Then she moves over to Ebony.

"So then, what was that you said about me being dumb?" I say. Ebony gives me an angry look.

"You're just lucky! We just underestimated you, that's all! We won't lose to you, I promise," Ebony says.

"You promise? I'm not some childhood friend, Ebony, I'm the enemy," I say.

"So why don't you attack us, then?" Chiara says. She must have noticed that I was trying to rile up Ebony, and so she interrupted. Smart. You may not be a master of strategy, like you say you are, Chiara, but you are pretty smart. "Nothing? Then I suppose I should start doing things, shouldn't I?" I feel myself being surrounded by a psychic energy, and before I know it I'm flying across the room. I land next to the wall. Just a few more feet and that would have hurt much more...

So now I have to deal with Chiara's psychic powers too. I guess I'll have to keep moving, it's the only way to avoid being caught by her psychics. Darn it. That's going to burn too much energy. I guess all I can do is try to stall until Avia and Cyria get here. I hope they're having more success than I am.

I start moving in a zig-zag motion towards Chiara. Ebony charges straight at me.

I give you props on being less predictable, Ebony, but you'll need to be faster than you are if you want to beat me with a reckless move like that. Plus, if we get too close, Chiara won't be able to use her psychics as long as I keep moving. What a stroke of luck!

Ebony fires more fire at me. How didn't I see this coming! Of course she would do that! Even she's not dumb enough to charge blindly at me! I dodge to the right, still keeping my eyes on Ebony. She smiles when she sees me move. Darn it, what did I screw up this time? I can feel something solid wrap around my leg and lift me up.

I look at Ebony and Chiara, but now I'm upside down. I'm caught it a rope trap, I can feel the rope on my leg. I completely feel for such an obvious trap. I should stop being so cocky. Chiara smiles, and Ebony laughs at me. Chiara's smile looks almost devilish, somehow. Like she's excited to watch me be in pain or something.

"Who's the smart pokemon now?" Ebony says, sticking her tongue out at me, "Did you really think that I was just charging you blindly? Maybe you are as dumb as you look." Blood begins to rush to my head. I can't be upside down for too long. I need to figure out how to get out of here. I've got to stop hoping that the girls will help me and figure this out myself. I don't have the time to wait. Unless they come in some kind of miracle rescue, I'm on my own. It's safe to assume that they're just finishing up with their missions, which means that they won't be here until I'm either dead, or free.

If I remember correctly, and I don't know where I learned this, staying upside down for too long can cause blot clots in the brain, blindness, and the drowning of the lungs in blood. I don't know how long it would take, though. I'm going to guess that I have four minutes. Any longer and, even if I did get out, my legs wouldn't have enough blood to function for a while. They'd have plenty of time to kill me before I could run. Four minutes to live. Great, just great.


	12. Chapter 5 part 3:Trap Master part 2

Let's see. So my only option seems to be to trick Ebony. But she's not alone. Chiara will be sure to stop anything before it gets too out of hand, and I don't think I can trick both of them. What else is there? Maybe I can cut the rope? How, though? I don't have any sharp objects on me. But my teeth!

I twist and bite the rope. My teeth, though, are too flat to cut through the rope. Stupid teeth! Well, if my front teeth won't work, then I'll have to try my side teeth! I continue to bite on the rope with my side teeth, and to my surprise, it breaks. I land clumsily, but on my feet, feeling my teeth with my tongue.

Fangs. I'll have to ask if it's normal for eevee to have fangs later. As for now, I should worry about these two. I see Ebony looking at me angrily. Chiara just looks at me expressionlessly. I can't tell what she's feeling by looking at her, she's good, I'll give her that. She never lets me know how she's feeling...

"Well then, I see you may actually be a fun opponent. Good, I wouldn't want someone who's completely helpless. Now that wouldn't be any fun. Well I'm glad that you can put up a fight. Still, you're no match for me," Chiara says.

"Says the E rank criminal," I reply. Chiara laughs.

"And do you honestly think that I am? Those who rank these missions just guess, and they're so easy to fool. This entire thing was a set up. If I'm E rank, I won't have to worry about opponents of my own level coming to find me," Chiara says.

"Care to back those words up?" I respond.

"I'd love to."

"Then ditch the tepig. You already have the advantage of having set traps everywhere."

"We're a team. If you fight me, you fight her."

"So what of my team, then? I've left them out of this."

"So you have a team, so what, kid? This isn't about being fair."

"I guess not. What am I thinking, expecting honor from villains?"

"Honor? Oh please, you would do the same thing. Don't think that, just because we're against you, we're lower than you are morally. We've made some decisions that most pokemon would frown upon, yes, but you would have done the same thing, if you were in our situation. If the roles had been reversed, we'd be the ones hunting you down."

"But the roles haven't been reversed, have they?\ And who are you to say that I would be like you? In case you haven't noticed, we're not the same pokemon, we're not even close. You have to pay for your crimes, it's as simple as that, really."

"One day you'll understand. You'll realize that you're no better than I. But I guess that day is far off. You're still insolent, little boy."

"And maybe I am insolent, but that doesn't matter to me now. All that matters is that you're going down."

I begin to run towards them, knowing that they'll try something. I just have to be ready for anything, seems easy enough. Yep, being prepared for millions of possibilities is totally easy.

"You just won't quit, will you?" Ebony says. She shoots some fire at me. It's slightly to my left, so she must be trying to trick me into going right. So I need to dodge left.

I move to the left, and thankfully, not into a trap. And charge straight into Ebony. I connect, and she slams into the wall. When she lands, I can see that she doesn't move. One down, one to go. Now there's no distractions. It's just Chiara and I.

I shift my movement towards Chiara, who seems to still be looking at Ebony. Maybe I can catch her off guard. It's probably a trap, she probably is trying to lure me in, but it's the only shot I've got! I continue to run towards her, eventually making contact, and slamming her into the wall.

"Listen... I've got a proposal. You said that you've got a team, right? I guess it's enevitable. We can't win... And they're probably coming here soon, correct?" Chiara asks.

"Yeah, probably. Why?" I ask.

"I'll come with you, be captured and all that, if you leave Ebony out of it. Do we have a deal?" Chiara asks.

"Sure, that sounds good enough to me," I say.

"Thank...you." With that, I led Chiara out of the dungeon.

Once we exit, I see Avia and Cyria standing by the exit, waiting for me. Next to Cyria is an unconscious shellos.

"Thank goodness. We were getting worried. We were just about to come look for you," Avia says.

"What can I say, Chiara here's pretty good," I say.

"Well, I'm glad you're back," Cyria says. I look Cyria over carefully. There's no even a scratch on her. Did she really manage to beat such a criminal alone, without even getting hit? When I look at Avia, I notice several small wounds. She didn't even fight a criminal, but she's still more wounded than Cyria is.

"S-shelly. You took down Shelly? And without a scratch on the kirlia? What kind of demonic team is this?" Chiara says. I look at her oddly.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Shelly was always much stronger than I was. So much so. I never... Even I would hardly be a challenge for her. Did your teammates really take her down?" Chiara asks.

"Actually, it was just Cyria. I was busy doing a rescue mission," Avia explains.

"And it makes sense that he was tougher than you. He is a D rank criminal, after all," Cyria says.

"I guess," Chiara says.

"Didn't5 you say that the whole ranking thing was just a ploy so that no strong rescue teams came after you?" I ask.

"That was a bluff. I was hoping that you'd overestimate me, and be too nervous to fight well. Anyways, let's get me to the police already, I'm tired of wallowing in my defeat, and being around you all certainly isn't helping," Chiara says.

"Then let's get going," I say. We walk to the guild, where Magnezone and a few magnemite are waiting.

"Thank you for your cooperation. Your rewards will be delivered to your guild." Magnezone tells us. He has a strange voice. As if every letter were a separate word, and words were just many words strung together. But still at the same speed. Huh, weird. He takes the criminals and leaves, not one for conversation, I guess.

"Jiro, how tough was that girl? You haven't been walking normally, and you're got scratches all over your body. Can one E rank criminal really do all of that?" Cyria asks. I can't tell her about Ebony, that was the deal. So I guess I'll have to leave that part out.

"She set up a bunch of traps to help her fight. If it were just us, without those traps, she wouldn't have been so tough," I say.

"I see. Well I'm glad that you made it out okay," Avia says.

"So how did your missions go?" I ask.

"Mine went off without a hitch. He was tough, but he could never get close enough to me to actually do any damage," Cyria says.

"My rescue was easy enough. I ran into a few problems, and the pokemon I was rescuing was a little... odd, but no big troubles overall," Avia says.

"So now we go collect our rewards from Chatot, right?" I ask.

"Correction, Cyria and I will. You're going to get some rest. You'll need it. We've only got missions that are just as hard tomorrow," Avia says.

"Aw, I can't stay awake?" I ask.

"No, you've got to conserve all of the energy you can. Don't worry, you'll see us in the morning," Avia says, winking at me.

"Fine then, I guess it's bed time for me," I say, yawning in the middle of my sentence, "Goodnight girls".


	13. Chapter 6 part 1:Jiro vs Mino

"Hey, wake up!" Loe's voice yells. "You do want to get picked for the expedition, don't you?"

I get up to see Avia and Cyria looking at me.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. Once I'm sleeping, stopping doesn't usually feel like the best option," I say. Avia giggles.

"Yes, you sure do like your sleep. Anyways, we'd better get going," Avia says. With that we all run to the lobby.

After morning cheers and the usual boring announcements, Chatot continues talking.

"I have two more things to say. First of all, you all know about the time gears, right?" Chatot asks. A what? No, Chatot, I have no idea what those are. Are they some kind of gears that move every second to help count time? No, that's stupid, why would we talk about that?

"Could we have a brief refresher?" I ask.

"Of course. The time gears are the hidden gears in the world that control the flow of time. Without their being where they are, the very flow of time would stop. If that were to happen we would all be trapped, never to move again. Moving forward in time is the same as living. Anyways, one of the time gears has been stolen. We aren't sure why, or who is behind the thievery, but be on the lookout for anything suspicious," Chatot says.

"Who would be stupid enough to steal a time gear?" Avia whispers to me.

"Even the most hardened criminals know not to touch them. What is this criminal's deal?" Loe yells. A roar of voices follows his comment.

"Quiet!" Chatot yells. "Anyways, I have on more thing to share with you all. The Guildmaster and I have decided to test your fighting skills today. This will play a large roll in the selection of teams for the expedition. We will play this out in the form of a single elimination tournament. Remember, the most important thing is to show us your skills, so even if you have a seemlingly impossible match, you should still try your best! And as for those of you who are in teams, all of you will be participating. We need to see the strength that all of you have, not just one of your team members. The Guildmaster and I have already made the tournament bracket, at complete random, of course. But because there are so many of us, we'll have to have several fights going on at once. We'll start with three. Jiro versus Mino, Avia versus Ica, and Sycthe versus Loe." So I won't be able to see Avia's match. And I might be facing her next round. That is, of course, if I beat Mino. I haven't seen him battle, but he's probably pretty tough. I guess all I can do is try my best. And I need to get on that expedition, if not for my own sake, then for Avia's, she obviously wants to go. Why wouldn't she? This is her dream, after all. Plus, it may give me just the opportunity I need to be a hero if I do go.

"So I'll be fighting you after I take care of your friend. It should be fun. I look forward to taking you down, Jiro," I voice behind me says. I turn around and see Ica.

"Don't get so cocky," I say.

"That's right, what am I thinking? You could still lose to Mino, so why should I assume that you'll be my opponent?" She says.

"That's not what I meant," I say.

"I know. But you'll see soon enough that it's what you should have meant," she says.

"Oh, stop acting so tough, will you?" A male Banette says as he appears behind Ica, "It's not befitting of your pretty face." I shiver. The way he said, "pretty face" somehow sounds more like a threat than a complement.

"Well hello to you too, Spiral. Glad that's the first thing you say to me when you get back. Where's Ri?" Ica asks.

"He's around here somewhere. But you've got something more important than finding Ri to worry about," Spiral says.

"Like what?" Ica asks.

"Like winning your match. Don't let us down, okay?" Spiral says. Then he disappears.

"Well he seems like a regular ol' sweetheart," I say.

"He's in a good mood today," Ica says.

"Really? Then I would hate to see what he looks like when he's in a bad mood," I say. Ica laughs.

"Yes, it can be quite scary. Well, I've got to go beat up your teammate, don't lose to Mino, okay?" She winks at me and walks away.

I've got a match too, I need to focus.

The guild walks outside as a collective, and to a wide field a half mile or so away.

"Okay, everyone who is in one of the first three matches, find your opponent, as for the rest of you, back up and give the competitors some space," Chatot says. I find Mino and we stand in the field, staring at each other. "You may begin your fight when ready."

"Good luck," I say to Mino. He doesn't respond. Well I guess it can't be helped. He shoots a small volt at my feet, but I'm able to jump back and dodge it. A warning shot. He knew I would dodge it. I guess the fight's on now.

He shoots another bolt of lighting at me, I try to dodge, but the lightning's too fast. I scream in pain as the electricity travels through my body. He's going to be a tough opponent, that's for sure. He rushes at me, I try to move, but my leg doesn't seem to want to respond. There's only one thing left to do.

When he gets close enough to touch, I can see him pulling back his fist. He's charging up some kind of electric punch, no doubt.

I bite down on his neck with my teeth, causing him to fall onto the ground with me on top of him. I don't let go of the bite.

He tries to move around and struggle, but I stay on top of him, biting deeper and deeper into his neck. He screams in pain.

"I forfeit. It's not like I can fight without Plusa anyways. This is such a drag," he says. I let go of his neck. That was... Odd. I didn't expect him to give up so quickly. He didn't seem to care that much about our fight. Well, whatever, I won, that's what's important. I wonder how Avia's doing, surely her match isn't over yet. I look to my left and the first thing I see is an unconscious Loe. Looks like he was no match for Scythe. Looking past them, I see Ica and Avia, who are still battling it out.

Ica is currently smacking Avia's face with her tail. Just use fire, Avia, just... she can't, Ica's hitting her too quickly, she can't get at a good angle.

Avia jumps back and shoots some fire at Ica, who dodges it and slams into Avia. Darn it, she's fast. Avia tries to get up, but Ica smacks her feet with her tail, causing her to trip. I see Avia's mouth move, and they stop fighting. It looks like Ica is tough, too tough for Avia, even. Avia looks at me and mouths, "I'm sorry".

"It's fine," I mouth back.

"Our winners are Jiro, Ica, and Scythe!" Chatot yells. "Now for our next three matches. Diglett versus Spark, Sunflora versus Ri, and Rosie versus Cyria! Please find your opponent and begin when ready. As for those of you who just fought, please move out of the way of our next competitors." I walk to where most of the rest of the guild is standing. So Cyria's fighting in this round. You had better win, Cyria.


	14. Chapter 6 part 2:Cyria vs Rosie

I see Cyria and a roselia standing next to each other, looking ready for battle.

"Go Cyria, you can do it!" Avia, who must have slipped next to me when I wasn't paying attention says.

"So do you know anything about this, 'Rosie' girl?" I ask Avia.

"Yes, actually. She used to be one of my best friends. We grew apart when she joined the guild, I wanted to come with her, but she said that I'd only hold her back. Anyways, just like Cyria, she's an expert at ranged combat," Avia says.

"So wait, you two were friends?" I ask.

"Practically sisters. You see, she kinda just showed up in town one day. She had nowhere to go, no parents, friends, anybody. She was the same as I was just a few years before... Anyways, we lived together for a while, becoming good friends, and fostering dreams of one day joining the Wigglytuff guild. We trained really hard... One day, she left, leaving a note which basically said, 'I'm going to join the guild. Don't come with me, you'll only hold me back." I want to ask why she didn't have parents, but that'd probably be a bad thing to bring up right now.

"So how tough is she? You said that you used to train with her..."

"She was always much better than I was, even though I had the type advantage. I can understand why she said that I would just hold her back, I've always been weak. Today is no exception. I couldn't even win my first round match."

"That's just because she was tough. You would've won if you would have had my match, just like I would have lost in your circumstance."

"Well, I guess we'll see. She is your next opponent, after all."

"Yeah. But for now we should probably focus on Cyria's match."

"Oh gosh! Has that started already?" I look over at Cyria. She still seems to be talking to Rosie. As for the other matches, Sunflora lies unconscious while a riolu, who must be Ri, towers over her, and Diglett seems to be annoying Spark by digging under the ground so that he can't attack him. Diglett's a ground type, so Spark doesn't have much of a chance anyways. There's no way Spark could beat him. His electric moves couldn't even hurt Diglett if they hit him.

Cyria's match seems to be starting, they both back away from each other, and stare into each other's eyes.

Rosie makes the first move, she shoots a slew of leaves at Cyria. But they drop to the ground a meter away from her or so.

"Oh please tell me that's just a warm up. I wouldn't want to beat you too easily," Cyria says.

"But Rosie's just getting started," Avia says quietly. I can't tell if she meant for me to hear or not.

Some needles fly towards Cyria, but they are all deflected in a one meter of so diameter, just like the last time.

"So that's your trick. Just some lame psychic powers. Pathetic. You really do belong with a loser like Avia," Rosie says. Cyria laughs.

"You don't even know how this all works, do you? This mind game you're trying to play. It's not bad, I suppose. For an amateur. But if you're going to play this for real..." Cyria trails off. A mind game, of course! An angry opponent is an easy one to defeat. They don't use their head. Rosie was trying to get Cyria angry, but from the look of it, just the opposite has happened. If either of them is angry, it's Rosie.

Suddenly a storm of leaves surge toward Cyria. There's many more than the last time she shot leaves, around five times more, if I had to guess.

"The petal dance. So she's already been driven that far..." Avia says.

"Is that her best move or something?" I ask.

"It's one of her best for sure, but not without it's own negative effects. Confusion... I can't believe it, not only did Cyria stop Rosie's mental attack, she completely broke Rosie's mental defenses as well. I've never been able to push Rosie this far, but Cyria makes it look easy," Avia says. The leaves move toward Cyria. But all of them drop to the ground at the same place that the other leaves did. This is crazy! Cyria's really strong enough to do this?

"H-how are you?" Rosie stammers. She's moving back and forth, unable to find her balance. I see her being surrounded by a purple energy, and falling to the ground soon afterward. She doesn't move for a bit. Is she really unconscious already? That was a quick fight. They talked for longer than they fought... I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes.

"The winners are Ri, Spark, and Cyria!" Chatot announces. Spark? How'd be beat Diglett when he couldn't even hurt him? What'd I miss? He must've used some kind of physical assault. But to be able to beat Diglett, even when at such an advantage... he's tough. I guess that's why he's the leader of team Volt.

"That friend of yours. She's pretty tough," I hear a voice from behind me say. I turn around to see Ri.

"Cyria? Yeah, she certainly is," I say.

"She's my opponent next. Hopefully she'll be interesting," Ri says before turning and walking away. Cyria walks up to us while Ri walks away.

"Shesh, that was one crazy battle," she says.

"You made it look so easy..." Avia says.

"She was a challenge. Luckily for me, her confused state destroyed her," Cyria says.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"The barrier I was keeping up to block her moves, I never used it on her petal dance. She collapsed mentally when she used that move, and she came under the illusion that everything would fall the same distance away from me, no matter what she tried, in some recesses of her mind. Because of this, she couldn't hurt me. It's hard to explain, but I think you get the idea. Her mind had beaten her before I got the chance to do much," Cyria says.

"I could never even push her that far, and you did it... as if it were easy..." Avia says. She must be feeling pretty down. There's got to be something I can say to make her feel better.

"I never said it was easy. The point is that if you can make it look easy, your opponent won't be able to take advantage of your weaknesses," Cyria says. Beaten to the punch. I'm just glad that someone had a decent punch to throw. Hopefully it cheers Avia up a little.

"I'm sorry for being such a downer," Avia says.

"You don't wear frowns as well as you wear smiles. Remember that," Cyria says. I feel completely useless. Cyria knows exactly what to say and when, and here I am, Avia's partner, and I have no clue what to do. I guess as long as Avia's happy, I should be too. I can deal with my shortcomings later.


	15. Chapter 6 part 3:Interruption

Crawling through the darkness, such darkness that one would assume that it's the shadow of a shadow.

The building's bigger than I had originally thought. And there's magnemite guards at the only door in. I know, now, I've circled the whole building. Their outer security isn't the best, but it doesn't have to be.

Most pokemon don't try to get _into_ a prison.

If I attack the guards there's no doubt that they're raise some kind of alarm. I can't have that happening. That would certainly complicate things. But I need to get by them.

Well, there's always _that _plan. It only works once, but it's the best shot I've got. If I screw up, though, then my coming here was just turning myself in. The risk is great, but it's the only shot I've got.

I want to be mad at him for taking my best friend away, my reason for living. She taught me why my life was important, saved me from falling over the edge. So why can't I resent him for putting her here?

Focus. Your inability to feel emotions that you should can wait. The mission. The mission is more important than these silly emotions.

I walk over to the guards, trying to act as calm as possible.

"Hey, I'm a wanted criminal," I tell them, "I'm turning myself in." I tell them. They look at me oddly. There's just two of them. Good, I can handle that.

"What's your name?" One of the magnemite guards asks. Okay, who's wanted? Preferably a tepig... Silla. Perfect.

"My name is Silla," I say. I can see their eyes widen. It looks like Silla has quite the reputation. More than I thought, a year ago all she had on her head was a few small thefts. I guess she's gotten more serious. Good for her.

"Well then, follow me, Silla," the magnemite says. He opens the gate to the prison, and leads me inside. There's tons of cells, more than I had expected, that's for sure. He leads me to one in a very quiet hallway with no other guards in it. I still haven't seen Chiara yet, where did they put her?

He opens a cell door, the cell is empty, looks like he didn't want to give me a roomate. How rude of him. I walk into the cell. Just as he is about to close the cell door, I fake a gasp.

"There's some kind of hole here. I think someone was trying to dig their way out!" I exclaim. He enters my cell. "It's over there, in the corner." I point to the corner farthest from the door. Once he is past me, I dash out of the cell and close the door. I shoot him with fire before he can call for help.

Maybe this could work more than once, he's sure stupid enough, maybe the rest of the guards are too... I scan around me, but there's no sign of Chiara's cell. There are other pokemon trapped here, though, perhaps I can motivate one of them to talk.

I walk over to a cell containing an oshawott. "Hey, you're pretty cute. Would you mind letting me out of here to I can admire your beauty close up?" The oshawott asks. Wonderful, a fake flirty guy. What a pathetic way to try to get your freedom.

"Actually. If you give me the information I want, I may just be motivated enough to help you out," I say.

"Ah, so you want to know where I live, so you can track me down after we bolt, if we do separate, somehow. I can't blame you, I'd want to know about me if I were you," he says. Wonderful, he's a jerk too.

"Actually, I'm looking for someone in particular. Are you familiar with Chiara?" I ask.

"Hmm... Yeah. Apparently she's made several decent escape attempts, none that have worked, but apparently she's thrown a few good tools around here, hidden from the idiot guards."

"Really? Have you seen where she hid the tools?"

"Not really, but she did leave a note around here. It's a quick note to some girl named Ebony who she thinks is going to come rescue her. I guess that must be you. The note's right here in my cell. She wanted to leave it somewhere the guards would never look. And they would never look in my cell. They know not to mess with me." He walks to the corner of his cell that's farthest away from the door and holds a piece of paper in his hands. He reaches out his hand to give it to me, but retracts it before I can reach it. "Let me out, and I'll give you the note from there, beautiful."

"Fine, but if you cross me I will eviscerate you."

"Well isn't someone feeling fiery today? I like it, your eyes really light up when you're threatening me." I break the cage door open with fire. Hopefully none of the guards heard that.

He hands me the letter, as promised.

_I find myself in a sticky situation. I've given up on escape, they're sure to put me in a maximum security prison soon. Ebony, if you do end up reading this, I'm probably already gone. Don't search for me. I hid all of my – no, your – treasure in our mountain, the third one I showed you when I was teaching you. The ghosts there will obey you now that I am no longer their master. Don't try to save me, I've given up on being a criminal. You're the master criminal now. Congrats on your promotion. _

_-Chiara. _

"So are you ready to split? We'd better leave soon, don't want the guards finding us," the oshawott says.

"Yeah, but how do we get out? This place is crawling with guards," I say.

"Not this little hallway. Chiara may have given up on her own escape, but she put some plans in order to make sure that you could get out of here," the oshawott says, pointing to a door. "That door will get us out of here." I never noticed this door on the outside. The Acana door! Of course! Impossible to see from the outside, easy to use from the inside, and it only takes a minute to set up. But if Chiara made this, then why didn't she escape through it?

"Are you coming or not?" the oshawott says. He opens to door to reveal the outside. Cold air brushes my face as I stand still for a moment, trying to figure it all out.

I shake my head to get myself together and race out the door, and he follows, not bothering to close it.

"Why are you following me?" I ask.

"What did you think that I was lying about thinking that you're beautiful? Chika, I'm going to be sticking to you like a ledyba to honey," he says.

"Then may I have your name?" I ask while still running.

"Call me sweetie," he says hopefully.

"No."

"Fine then, . Call me Oshal."


	16. Chapter 6 part 4:Rivalry

"And the final battles of the first round will be Plusa versus Spiral and Xya versus Amma!" Chatot announces. Xya and Amma? Who are they? They must be shy or something, I haven't heard of them. I feel a paw on my back, and I turn around to see a minccino.

"Watch me carefully. I'm going to wipe the floor with Xya," she says. So this is Amma. Well, she certainly doesn't seem to be shy.

"Okay, good luck," I say.

"Luck? Don't worry, I won't need any," she says.

"Yes, because you would fail even if you were the luckiest girl in the world," A female tyrogue says.

"Xya, I presume?" I say.

"Yes. I will be the one who wipes the floor with Amma, don't you worry," Xya says. Why would I worry about this fight at all?

"As if," Amma replies.

"I take it you two are rivals?" Avia says a tad weakly. I look over at Cyria, who just shrugs.

"Yes... Um... Is something wrong with your girlfriend?" Amma asks. I blush.

"She seems a little... sad," Xya adds.

"Don't worry about me. Aren't you two supposed to be battling right now?" Avia says, her voice still sounding a bit weak.

"Right! Don't worry, I'll be back in two shakes of a mareep's tail!" Amma says. She walks to the clearing. Once again with the worrying thing? What, do these girls think that all that I care about is how their fight goes, or something?

"Yeah, because you'll be unconscious!" Xya shouts after her. She follows Amma to the clearing.

I look to the clearing and see Spiral floating over Plusa's unconscious body. That was fast. If Plusa is as strong as Mino, then there's no way I could take him down, seeing as he's already taken down Plusa. Well, he's not my next opponent, anyways.

When I look back to Xya and Amma, I see that they've already started fighting. Xya throws several kicks at Amma, all of which she blocks with her tail. Amma tries to hit Xya with her tail, but Xya blocks all of her attacks with her arms.

Xya kicks Amma into the air and jumps over her. She does a flip and tries to smash Amma down to the ground with her leg. But Amma blocks her kick and wraps her tail around Xya's leg. She uses her tail the throw Xya to the ground, and she lands on Xya hard. I hear Xya let out a scream of pain.

Xya doesn't let the pain deter her, though, she grabs Amma by the foot and slams her into the ground next to herself. Amma lets out a groan as she tries to get up. She eventually succeeds, but I can tell by her stance that he's having a hard time standing. Xya gets up a few seconds after, and seems to be having the same issue.

"They're so determined," Avia says. I look back to her and she smiles at me warmly. Well she changed moods pretty quickly. "You can see it in their eyes. It's inspiring."

"I'm glad to see you're back to normal," I say.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Avia says. She laughs a bit. I can't help but laugh a little with her.

Xya charges at Amma and throws a punch, Amma drops to the ground at the last second and uses her tail to trip Xya. Xya falls down next to Amma. Both get up again, but obviously have a hard time doing so.

"It's going to be a battle of willpower. Whichever one of them wants it more is going to get it. They're pretty even fighting-wise and they know all of each other's moves. You know, this fight could last longer than we think. Neither one seems to be the type to give up," Cyria says.

All of a sudden, Xya fixes her form. She stands ready to battle. Amma looks at her and attempts a decent battle stance as well. She does okay, but it's obviously not easy for her. Maybe Xya is stronger than her. She certainly seems to have more stamina.

Xya throws a quick punch at Amma, who is unable to block it. She flies backwards and lands five feet away. That Xya girl can sure punch. Amma gets back up. She gets into a small coughing fit. I feel sorry for her. It's almost sad. Maybe I do care about this fight after all.

"Well, Xya's doomed," Cyria says.

"Um, are you even watching this fight?" Avia asks.

"Just watch, this fight's as good as done," Cyria says. I look back at the fight. It looks the same as it did before. Amma's struggling to stay up and Xya looks fine.

"This fight is finished, Xya," Amma says, "I've developed a strategy just for this occasion. You fell right into my trap." Amma fixes her fighting stance, she seems renewed like everything so far was... a joke...

"What did I tell you?" Cyria says, winking at Avia. I hear Xya yell, and see her fall to her knees.

"Toxic... I can't believe I fell for something so... stupid..." Xya says before falling on her face.

"You know how I said that this battle was going to be solely about willpower?" Cyria says.

"Yeah," I respond.

"I was wrong," she says. I laugh.

"Our winners are Spiral and Amma! And that concludes the first round! We'll have a short intermission, and then we'll get started with the second round," Chatot announces. Amma walks over to me.

"Hey, did you see that? I told you I was going to wipe the floor with her," Amma says. "Oh, and your girlfriend looks like she's feeling better, that's good to see." I blush again.

"I'm not his girlfriend," Avia says.

"You're not? Well now I feel silly. So you're dating Cyria, then?" Amma asks. I blush again. I wish I could stop myself from blushing, it's not helping anything.

"No, I'm not dating anybody," I say.

"Oh. Well now I feel really silly," she says in an almost chipper tone.

"It's fine, really," I say.

"So you're in the next fight, right? Against Ica? I pity you, not that my next opponent's any easier," Amma says.

"What can you tell me about Ica?" I ask.

"Other than what you've seen, not much. She doesn't fight very often. Or at least, not that I see. But she's on a team with Ri and Spiral. They're the most powerful team I've ever seen, other than the guildmaster and Chatot. My goal was just to make it to the second round to increase my chances of getting onto the expedition. I know I can't beat Spiral. With the level he's on, I'm going down just as quickly as Plusa did."

"He's that tough, huh?"

"Yeah. But hopefully getting this far will let me go on the expedition, that's really all that matters to me, you know?"

"Yeah, it's not like I expected to win or anything. But I guess I underestimated Ica, I thought that I could put up a fight..."

"Maybe you can. Like I said, I seldom see her fight. Maybe she's on a team with Ri and Spiral for reasons other than strength..."

"Do you know something I don't? That look in your eye..."

"They may just keep her around as their... persuasive member. She's good at getting information without torture. And as much as Spiral loves torture, Ri has some silly code of honor thing that would make him prefer Ica's methods."

"How do you know that?"

"I heard Ica talking with Spiral about it once. These big ears of mine do come in handy." She winks at me.

"Bite her into next week, Jiro!" Avia exclaims. Well that came out of nowhere. Amma giggles.

"Yes, do bite her so hard that it makes time travel a reality. I'd be quite interested in seeing that," Amma says, "but seriously. Good luck out there."

"You can keep your luck, I won't need it," I say, winking at her. She giggles.

"It is now time for the second round to commence! Our first matches will be Jiro versus Ica, and Scythe versus Spark!" Chatot announces. And so I make my way to the clearing, hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.


	17. Chapter 6 part 5:Attract

I take my position across from Ica, who smiles at me.

"Glad you made it. I was looking forward to this. Don't lose too quickly, okay? I want this to be fun," Ica says.

"I'll try my best," I say.

"Good," she winks at me, a heart floating from her eye towards my face. I wasn't ready, so I don't have time to dodge. Ica backs away as it hits me in the face.

She looks quite nice. Her eyes shine like the stars and... Attract. This is not good. I need a plan...

I try to move my legs, but I find it hard to move them for some reason. If find myself unable to take my eyes away from Ica's. I need to move... My legs begin to stumble around, and I try to move them to stay up. I find that I'm successful, but in the time I was focusing on my feet Ica was charging at me. She begins to move her tail back, it looks like she's going to try to hit my face. So I need to duck. I stop trying to stay upright, and fall to the ground. Ica's attack misses. Now I need to counter-attack. But do I really want to mess up such a pretty face? While I'm thinking she brings her tail down. It smashes into my body.

"Come on, at least try to make this fun," she says, winking at me. Her mouth looks so... kissable. I find myself unable to resist, and move my face towards hers, ready to kiss it. Come on! Attack her! At the last moment the soon-to-be kiss turns into a bite. I see the look of shock on her face and my jaws clamp down on her face. Her face tightens, and she tries to struggle, but my jaws hold on tight. See, this is almost like a kiss... Let's just keep doing this for a while. I feel a strange presence in my mouth. It feels like some kind of painful burning sensation in my mouth... I let go and try to spit the burning liquid out. Some of it comes out, but I can still feel much of it in my mouth. I look at what just came out of my mouth. Toxic, the same move that Amma used to beat Xya. Well, this complicates things. Not only do I have to deal with attract, but I also have to deal with the poison in my body. I feel a slight pain, moderately increasing as time goes on.

She's beautiful, smart, and strong. It's going to be hard to fight someone this attractive.

"You can do it, Jiro!" I hear a voice yell. I look and see Avia waving to me. How, Avia? How can I defeat Ica? I'm poisoned, and pretty much incapable of moving the way I want to. What possible choice could I have? I can't defeat her.

Let's approach this from a different angle. How would someone else defeat her? Ri and Spiral are supposed to be tough, how would they fight through this? Well, Ri's probably had some kind of special training, being a riolu and all. But what about Spiral? He seems like a complete sicko to me. It seems like attract would only make his want to hurt Ica more... That's it!

Okay, come on, breathe. I am Spiral, I am Spiral, I am Spiral. I am a monster that enjoys other's pain.

Her face looks pretty, like a beautiful peace of art. But I think the artist forgot the best part. There's not much pain on the face. What a shame. I guess I'll have to fix this mistake myself!

I charge at Ica, she tries to stop me with her tail, but I dodge it. I jump up and clamp down on her face with my jaws again. This time my bite is stronger, though, I can feel it. She stumbles and falls, but my jaws hold firm.

She tries to weaken my grip by hitting me with her tail, but I don't budge. Before she can try again, I pin her tail down with one of my legs. I use my remaining three legs to pin down three of hers. She has one leg unpinned, but she can't do much with that. And she can't use toxic now. The toxic liquid would fall onto her own face. Her beautiful face. It still needs more pain to decorate it. I tighten my grip on her face. I can almost feel her pain. It feels... good. It's like the finest silk. A fine compliment to her nice looking body... What am I thinking? This is insane. I'm not really this sick in the mind...

Her tail must have slipped free while I was thinking, she uses it to knock me off of her body. My grip must have weakened too. I land on my feet, but I can tell that my balance is fragile.

I tried... But I'm not what Spiral is. Well, what I assume he is, anyways. I don't particularly enjoy Ica's pain, it doesn't make me happy... I've been hurting her beautiful face.

"There's some of the fight I was looking for. You almost had me there. I guess you just didn't have the energy to keep me down," Ica says with a smile. I can't help but smile too, her smile is infectious. Like a virus of happiness. "I hope you've had fun too. But all good things must come to an end. I can see it, your body weakening. You can barely stand, and you can hardly pull together another good attack." She draws a line on the ground just in front of her with her tail. "You don't have enough energy to get any farther than this line... Go on, try and prove me wrong." She's right, the poison hurts. I'd be lucky to even get another hit in on her. But I have to try!

I charge at her in a zig-zag movement, I can't move straight any more. My legs will barely even let me move. The poison is sure taking effect. Every movement hurts more and more. I don't need much, she must be low on energy too. Just one more attack!

When I get close enough to bite her, I fall. I can feel my fur barely brushing against hers. I try to get up, but find myself unable to. I guess I lose. Well, at least I put up a fight.

"You passed the line," she tells me. She seems happy, it's almost like she wanted me to cross the line. Me eyes are closed, I'm trying to hold onto my consciousness, but I can't do it... I can faintly hear Avia shout. Chatot says something a few seconds later. I can't make out what they're saying though.

I'm sorry... Avia...

**As always, don't forget to review! It makes me happy. :)**


	18. Chapter 6 part 6:Crossblock

I open my eyes and see that I'm no longer on the field. I'm lying down next to Avia, who is watching the current match. Cyria's battling... How much did I miss? I groan in pain as I try to get up. Even now, it's not easy to stand up. Avia looks at me.

"Hey, sleepyhead. Glad to see you're awake," Avia says.

"What did I miss of Cyria's fight?" I ask.

"Not too much. I think they're still trying to get a feel for each other's fighting styles," Amma, who is on my left, says. "That was one heck of a fight you had, by the way. I love the way you tried to swallow her whole." Amma laughs.

"Yep, that was definitely the plan. Biting her to cause pain? Who would do that?" I joke.

"Actually, biting is a common tactic for many strong opponents," Xya says.

"You'll have to excuse her. She doesn't understand sarcasm," Amma says.

"So this is the sarcasm thing you told me about? You're right, I still don't understand. None of us laughed. I don't see how it's a comedic tactic," Xya says.

"We're all laughing on the inside," Amma says.

"I think I get it now," Xya says.

"No you don't. You said you understood it the last time I explained it to you, and how did that go?" Amma says. Xya hangs her head in shame.

"So how did the other match go? With Scythe?" I ask.

"He won fairly easily," Avia says. That means that those sneasels who kidnapped me must have been even tougher than I though. To be able to beat Scythe, who so easily beat Spark, even though Scythe had the type disadvantage...

I look to Cyria's fight, Ri shoots a ball of blue energy at her, but she deflects it. She doesn't show the same ease and grace that she had while fighting Rosie, though. It seems like she had to use a decent amount of energy to deflect it. Her form change as the ball was deflected. Somehow she actually had to move to keep up the barrier. I wonder why? I really should know more about my teammates. I'll have to ask Cyria about it later.

Suddenly, Ri appears behind Cyria, he kicks her into the air, and jumps after her. He's fast. I didn't even know that anyone from the guild could use much speed. He tries to kick Cyria down to the ground, but she grabs his leg and throws him down instead. This seems familiar. Didn't something similar happen in Amma's fight with Xya?

"He taught me that technique," Xya says. "Just in case you were wondering. We both have similar fighting styles, so one day he randomly decided to teach me that move. The only problem with it is the one you just saw. It can be countered without too much effort if your opponent has a skill level similar to yours. I may use it as one of my staple moves, but Ri likes to use it just to test his opponents. He should start taking Cyria seriously soonish."

Ri lands on his open hand, balancing on it for a while. When Cyria falls close enough, he kicks her back up into the air and disappears. He reappears next to Cyria and punches her down. He doesn't stop there, though. He falls at the same speed that Cyria does, constantly punching her. Never letting her body move away from his range.

"Wait a minute. Amma, weren't you supposed to fight Spiral this round?" I ask as Cyria falls.

"She forfeited like the coward she is!" Xya explains.

"You haven't seen Spiral's world. I was very justified to forfeit," Amma says. Cyria falls to the ground, and Ri tries to punch her again, but she rolls out of the way. How is she even still conscious? I'd be unconscious by now, that's for sure. Well, I guess that's why Cyria is the muscle of the team, and not me.

"Spiral's world?" Avia asks.

"It's an illusion that he uses while fighting. Only a coward falls victim to such illusions!" Xya exclaims.

"Shut up, would you? It may be an illusion, but it feels so real while you're in it," Amma says.

"What did you see in the illusion?" I ask. Amma shivers.

"Just focus on watching Cyria's match. Trust me, you don't want to hear about what I saw in the fifty or so seconds that we battled," Amma says.

"Only a coward forfeits after three seconds," Xya says.

"Shut up! You weren't there... You've never battled Spiral; I've battled him twice! You don't know the power of an illusion. Just because something's not real doesn't mean it's harmless," Amma snaps back. She seems so happy all the time. Whatever she saw must have been horrifying to make her lose her cool like that. And even if Cyria wins, she'll have to fight Spiral. This isn't looking very good.

"I guess I shouldn't have expected much from a newbie team member, even if you are their strongest member. Silly me. You're not bad, for a beginner. But you've got a long way to go before you can even hope to hold a candle to me," Ri says, laughing. "Well, it's been nice, but I'm beginning to get bored with going easy." I look at Cyria and see anger in her eyes. If Ri has been going easy this whole time... This isn't good.

Ri disappears and reappears behind Cyria, he tries to kick her, but she smashes his leg in between her leg and her elbow. Ri stumbles back and falls, screaming in pain.

"That was amazing. Not only was she able to block Ri's kick, she was able to crossblock it," Xya says.

"I'm more amazed that she could figure out where he was going to be. How does he keep disappearing like that, anyways?" I ask.

"He's not. You just can't see him when he's running. You have to be pretty amazing to be able to block any of his moves when he's actually trying. Especially because most of us can't even see them. Cyria might actually have a chance. This is amazing. Normally Spiral and Scythe are the only ones who even come close to hurting Ri. What a turn of events!" Amma says.

"I forfeit," Cyria says. What? Why? How could you do that when you actually had a chance of winning? I sigh.

I guess I need to trust Cyria's judgment. As a member of our team, if she wants to forfeit, there must have been a good reason. She limps towards Avia and me. Why is she limping? I don't remember her getting hit in the leg. Unless... It must have happened when she fell to the ground, or maybe when she was using that crossblock, or whatever it's called. Either way, I can kinda see why she forfeited now.

"Sorry," she says when she gets near Avia and me, "I would have kept going, but the fight took too much out of me." She lies down on the ground. "That feels better."

"Still, you did really well out there. And that crossblock was amazing!" Avia says. I look at Ri, who seems to be limping back to his friends as well. That crossblock is sure one powerful move. Cyria looks at Avia oddly.

"How do you know the term for it?" Cyria asks.

"Xya told us while you were fighting," Avia says.

"Ah. Xya... Speaking of Xya, I have a question for her. Xya, were you ever a student in the Vanguard?" Cyria asks.

"The Vanguard? No. My sister is, though. I tried to join the Vanguard, but I wasn't strong enough. That is why I'm training here. So that I don't fall too far behind my sister. Why do you ask?" Xya asks.

"Just curious. I've been to the Vanguard a few times, and I've seen many tyrogue, including one that reminds me of you. I guess I probably saw your sister," Cyria says.

"I'm lost. What's the Vanguard?" I ask.

"It's a dojo of sorts solely for fighting types. It's famous for having the strongest young pupils. Most of them would be at Xya's skill level or higher before even beginning their training," Avia says.

"Wow, they do sound tough," I say.

"Did you see my sister fight?" Xya asks in an almost desperate tone.

"Let's see. The last time I went was a year ago... Yes, yes I did. She was fighting Vivia. That was a good fight," Cyria says.

"You actually saw her fight? How did she do? How tough was she?" Xya asks.

"About as tough as Ri. She wasn't nearly as fast, but Ri isn't nearly as strong. And that was a year ago..."

"Then I will have to train even harder!"

"She lost, just in case you're curious. She probably had to spend a few weeks just recovering from her injuries."

"What? How?"

"Where do you think I learned the crossblock? I'm a ranged fighter, so I wouldn't learn the technique unless I just happened to see a fight in which someone used it. My crossblock is a duller blade, though. Ri would probably still be screaming in pain if I had mastered the technique."

"And now, the next fight shall begin!" Chatot says, interrupting our conversation, "Since this is the semi-finals, we will only have one fight going on at once! I expect you all to watch and learn from our talented individuals who have made it this far! Without further ado, let us begin! Ica, Scythe, take your positions!"

**Thank you to all of my readers, especially my reviewers! You all help me stay motivated, and keep my in line when I screw up (for example, how I thought that acid was toxic last chapter) **

** And as always, if you feel like it, please review. **


	19. Chapter 6 part 7:A nice Walk

"Hey, do you want to take a walk?" Amma asks me. Well this is pretty out of the blue.

"The final battles are about to start," I say.

"That's why," Amma says.

"I'm afraid I don't follow your logic," I say.

"I don't know about you, but I'd rather talk than watch these fights. Please, for me?" Amma asks. Xya gives Amma an odd look. I wonder what's going on... Somehow these seems to be a little more to this than not caring to see the fights.

I look at Cyria, who shrugs as if to say, "I don't know what they're up to either." She mouths, "it's fine, go" to me. I give her an odd look. "Why not?" She mouths.

"So what do you say? Want to go take a walk? Get the blood flowing and all?" Amma asks.

"Sure, why not?" I say. She begins to walk away from everyone else, I run to catch up with her. My legs ache, but I find it easier to move than I thought.

"So what are your dreams? Like, why are you here at the guild? I'm sorry if this question is a little out of the blue. I just can't help but wonder," Amma says as we walk. What are my dreams? I kinda just became a rescue team member because it was the only option I had that wasn't being alone. But what do I want to do with this power? In the beginning, the first thing I remember, I have to be a hero to find my destiny.

"I want to be a hero, I guess," I say.

"You guess? Most pokemon sound much more... sure when they mention their dreams," Amma says.

"I don't really know for sure. I'm kinda just going when the wind takes me. So what about you, what's your dream?" I ask.

"I want to be worth something. To be able to help pokemon in need, you know? And friends who need me, of course. But to do that I need to become stronger."

"Well it looks like you've got this whole 'dream' thing figured out."

"I guess. But having a dream is different from accomplishing it."

"Yeah, but it's the first step, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so. So what was your life like before the guild?" I definitely can't tell her that I'm human, but I see no reason to keep the amnesia a secret.

"I don't remember. I just woke up on the beach on day with no memory of my past. That's where I met Avia, and formed a rescue team with her. If I may ask, why all of these questions? Not that I mind or anything."

"Well, that's what friends do. They get to know each other, right?" She winks at me. Friends? When did this happen?

"We... We're friends?"

"Yeah. You know friends. Pokemon who care for and support one another. Don't you know what the word friend means?"

"Yeah. I guess I'm just a bit surprised. We just met today, after all."

"Yes, but we're part of the same guild. We're teammates now, in a way. Plus, you seem nice, and I assume you don't dislike me. Plus, having friends is fun! Every friendship has to start somewhere, so why not today?"

"So this is what this was all about?"

"Huh?"

"The walk? You wanted to extend a paw of friendship to me." She giggles.

"You don't miss a beat, do you? Just what I'd expect from good ol' Jiro. So what do you say, friends?" She stops walking and extends a paw toward me. I extend my own paw and shake it.

"Sure."

"This is a tad corny, isn't it?"

"Yes, yes it is. But there's nothing wrong with being corny."

"Good point. Hey, did you notice Xya's looking at us strangely before we walked away?" Amma blushes slightly.

"Yeah. She's just being... Xya. She knows that I don't usually like to miss a good fight, so she's confused. But I'm just not feeling it today."

"Is it because of 'Spiral's world'?"

"Probably. It takes all the fight out of a pokemon."

"Is it really that bad?"

"Yeah, it's hard to understand unless you're there. I could have fought harder against him, but I know what would have happened. I'm no stronger against his tricks than the last time I fought him. I can be as strong as I want physically, it won't do me any good if I don't have the mental strength to fight the illusions. There's got to be some way to fight them, right?"

"I suppose if your mind didn't communicate the torture as bad. You called it 'Spiral's world', right? I assume Spiral could tolerate it, if he doesn't have to go through the illusion himself. So how does - or could - he tolerate it?"

"Maybe he's used to it?"

"Maybe. But why develop a technique that would harm you originally? The way I see it, he probably designed a 'world' that he feels comfortable, or at least okay, in. So if one were to change his or her mind a little..."

"You can't just morph your mind however you please."

"How do you think I got around attract? It didn't stop working. Admittedly, changing one's mind doesn't completely work, but it's not a bad place to start. It's either that, or having the strength of will to fight through it."

"Arceus, you're smart." I blush.

"It's just like your toxic strategy, it's predicted logic."

"You know, I think more teams need a tactician, like you. They bring out the strength in their team." I blush even harder.

"Thanks. I try my best to help. I'm not much of a fighter, so I've got to pull my weight somehow."

"And I think you found a brilliant way. But don't count yourself out. I've seen you fight, you're pretty good." My blushing increases slightly. If I had to put a percentage on the increase of my blushing, it would be seven percent. Which would put me at eighty nine percent of my blushing capacity. Wow... Maybe I'm thinking too hard about this...

"Thank you. So should we get back?"

"Yeah, we can't miss the finals."

"Who do you think will be battling?"

"If I had to guess, it would be Scythe and Ri. That's always a fun match to watch."

"They've battled before?"

"Yeah, several times."

"And how does it usually turn out?"

"Ri has never lost to Scythe, the battle's as good as over. But it'll still be fun to watch."


	20. Chapter 6 part 8:Too many Puns

As Amma and I begin to walk back to the clearing, a dense fog rolls in out of nowhere.

"This feels way too fast to be natural," Amma points out. She's right. We're in a forest in the middle of the day, this much fog doesn't make any sense.

"Does this remind you of what Spiral did at all?" I ask.

"No, no one from the guild makes mist. It must be an enemy. Be on your guard!" She says. My muscles tense, ready to move at any moment. After a few more seconds of walking, a blast of water appears in front of me. Luckily for me, I stop before I run into it.

"It looks like my attack through the mist missed," I hear a male voice say. Another voice laughs.

"Yes you, a team Mist member, missed your attack through the mist. It's okay, though, the water you shot won't be missed," the other male voice says. Both voices laugh.

"I'm not sure which offends me more, the fact that they attacked us, or their horrible puns," Amma says. I laugh a little.

"Hey, there's no need to be mean, we were just having a little fun," one of the voices says.

"I think she missed the joke," the other voice says. Both of them laugh.

"Who are you? Show yourselves!" I say.

"Well then, I guess we know who's the leader of your rescue team. Arceus, Eevee face, chill out, will you?" One of the voices says.

"Me chill out? Who attacked whom again?" I say.

"He's got a point there, Bryce," one of the voices says.

"I guess," the other voice, presumably named Bryce, says. I see a squirtle and a cyndaquil come out from the inside of a nearby bush.

"I'm Cadel," the squirtle says.

"And I'm Bryce," the cyndaquil says.

"Why did you two attack us?" Amma asks. Cadel shrugs.

"It was the best way I could think of to get your attention," Cadel says.

"How about, 'hey,' or 'hello'? Pretty much anything would be better than attacking us," Amma says.

"It gives a pretty bad first impression," I add. Cadel laughs nervously.

"I suppose it does. But you two are a team from the Wigglytuff guild, right?" Cadel asks.

"Well, we're not on the same team, but you've got the basic idea right," I say.

"We were hoping that we could become a rescue team, too," Bryce says.

"So you want us to introduce you to Wigglytuff?" I ask.

"Basically. Arceus, it's not easy to see through this mist, is it? I think we may have overdone it," Cadel says.

"Yeah. This mist will surely not be missed," Bryce says, causing him and Cadel to laugh. I roll my eyes. These mist puns get old fast.

"Please don't tell me you're always like this," I say.

"Only when fighting. If we can't win with our physical attacks, we'll pun them to death!" Cadel says.

"Yeah. It's our number one power strategy! No one has ever lived through it! Except you. We'll let you live. But just this once," Bryce says. Amma rolls her eyes as if to say, 'Please. We could totally take these guys'.

"So are we still battling, then? You're still using puns," I say. Cadel gives me an odd look.

"Dude, I was joking. I use puns whenever I feel like it. When we're using our mist attack is just our best opportunity," Cadel says.

"Can't miss a perfect pun opportunity! They don't just grow on trees," Bryce says.

"I don't think you understand how that phrase is-" I start.

"So what do we have here, anyways? Two friends just hanging out in the woods? I think not," Cadel says, interrupting me. Yes, you certainly don't think.

"Two lovebirds on a secret rendez-vous, maybe? Trying to hide your love from your team members and fellow guild members?" Bryce adds.

"I think so, I think so. It would explain how synchronized they seem to be. And how much it looks like they're just _dying _to get us out of here so they can make out," Cadel says. I blush, and see that Amma's doing the same.

"We're just friends," I say.

"On a secret rendez-vous of love! You may be friends now, but I'd say it doesn't look like you were planning to be for long," Cadel says. I sigh.

"Oh just shut your face. You know, being part of a guild also means being tolerable by your fellow guild members," I say.

"A lesson you two obviously need to learn," Amma adds. Wow, maybe we are in sync.

"I suppose. Sorry about that, I'm just so excited to finally be joining the Wigglytuff guild!" Bryce says.

"Don't worry, we'll be nice, I promise. I do need to know if you two are dating, though," Cadel says.

"Why do you need to know that?" Amma asks.

"So I know if I can hit on you," Cadel says, winking at her. She slaps him.

"I apologize for his behavior. He's joking, though. He's used acting like this. He has amnesia, you see. He can't remember anything from his past other than a few days ago when I found him in the woods. Long story short, he ended up getting used to talking like I do to aggravate my enemies. He has a kind heart, though, once you get to know him. He really does. And he's just so nervous about joining the guild, he kinda doesn't know how else to act," Bryce says.

"He has amnesia? So does Jiro!" Amma says, gesturing to me.

"Really? You don't have any tips, by chance, do you? It's been hard on him, though he doesn't show it," Byrce says.

"I have nothing to say. I'm in the same boat as him. I don't remember anything up until a couple of days ago, when my partner Avia found me on the beach," I say.

"Huh? Wait, what just happened, I zoned out after the hot chick slapped me. Oh, that reminds me, are you single? Come on, please tell me," Cadel says.

"I am, but please stop hitting on me. I'm not interested in you," Amma says.

"Rejected by a single girl. So I really am not a natural lady's man. Bryce, guess cross that off of the list of possible things that I used to be." Cadel says.

"One character trait down, one step closer to finding out who you really are!" Bryce exclaims.

"So anyways. Do you two want to head out? The Guildmaster's pretty close by," I say.

"I would be delighted to accompany you to Wiggles. Thank you," Cadel says.

He did not just call Wigglytuff Wiggles. Chatot will definitely hate this guy, and Wigglytuff probably won't like him much either. Let's hope he really does get better as you get to know him .


	21. Chapter 6 part 9: Pins and Needles

We walk back to where the rest of the guild is with Cadel and Bryce in tow. When we find them, I see that everyone is staring at the field, where Sythe and Spiral seem to be staring at one another.

"My gosh! The finals have already started!" Amma says, dragging me to where the rest of the guild is gathered. Bryce and Cadel follow us.

"Did you two have a nice walk?" Cyria asks

"Yeah. Have we missed anything in this round?" Amma asks.

"Nothing much. They've kinda just been staring at each other like this for a while," Avia says.

"And there's the battle. Gosh, how did Spiral beat Ri, though? I thought he was supposed to be invincible," Amma says.

"It was because of my leg. I couldn't run with it in this condition," Ri says coldly. Amma looks down, I can tell she feels awkward about asking now. Did Cyria really mess Ri's leg up that badly? Or is it just that Ri needs every advantage he can get to beat Spiral?

"So is Spiral using his 'world', or whatever you called it?" I ask.

"It looks like it. Why else would they be staring at one another so long?" Amma says.

"So he needs to look into your eyes to use his attack?" I ask.

"Maybe? I guess I don't really pay attention to those kinds of details," Amma says. Well, I know what I can try if I have to fight Spiral for the next expedition. Hopefully I'm stronger by then, and smarter. And maybe we can go on this expedition, too. Cyria's strong, and I won the first round. If we do some good rescue team work, maybe we can still go on the exploration.

All of a sudden, Scythe starts flailing his arms around. Many of his strikes hit Spiral, but they just go right through him. Spiral smiles, as if he's pleased that Scythe is flailing around so oddly.

Then, Scythe's attacks change, the strikes are lower, faster, stronger. He hits Spiral a few times, eventually knocking him back.

"H-how did he break through Spiral's illusion?" Amma asks.

"He... Didn't," Ica says. I look at her. She has many cuts, and it sounds like talking hurts her.

"You mean he's just throwing strikes blindly, even while in the illusion?" I ask.

"Pretty much. He's just hoping that something connects. Even so, you've got to be pretty strong mentally to even have that much control over your body while in his illusion. It seems like Scythe's been training," Ri says.

Scythe continues to flail, but Spiral's too far away for him to hit now. Spiral creates a pin of sorts using some kind of dark enegy, and sticks it into his body. The pin keeps moving farther and farther into Spiral's body, until it's completely inside of him. Scythe cringes in pain.

"He's using himself as a voodoo doll," Amma says.

"You didn't honestly think that his 'world' was his only method of attack, did you? Actually, his 'world', as you call it, is one of his weaker attacks. I guess Spiral's done playing around if it's coming to pins and needles," Ri says. Many other needles of dark energy appear and stab Spiral, moving deep into his body. Why aren't them hurting him? I would imagine that any ordinary voodoo doll would get damaged if stabbed with a needle, so why isn't he? Scythe screams in pain and drops to the ground.

Well, this wasn't a close fight. It's crazy to think that we have members of this guild who can beat Scythe so easily, especially when Scythe could easily beat me. I guess it just goes to show the difference in strength that exists in this guild.

"Well, that wasn't the epic fight I was hoping for. But it was nice to see Spiral use something other than his 'world'," Amma says.

"The final round is over! Our victor is Spiral!" Chatot shouts. "Thank you all for your participation, you have the rest of the day off! Take this opportunity to get some rest, it's back to work tomorrow!"

"A day off... Thank Arceus. I need it," Ica says weekly.

"Do you need me to carry you back to the guild?" Ri asks.

"I'm fine... Plus, you've got your leg to worry about," Ica says.

"It's just a leg. I've got two of them, you know. One can help the other. And you can barely walk," Ri says.

"I'm fine," Ica says. She tries to stand up, but she falls back down.

"Nope, I'm carrying you," Ri says. He grabs Ica and puts her under his arm. And with that he walks away.

"Well that was..." Amma starts.

"Heartwarming?" Avia suggests.

"I was going to say odd, but that works too," Amma says.

"So should be get going as well? I don't know about you two, but I'm beat," Cyria says.

"I certainly couldn't do a mission in my state, but I can still walk. So I'm fine with whatever," Avia says.

"Yeah, I'm not too bad off. I can walk... As long as I don't exert myself," I say.

"Have I ever shown you around town?" Avia asks.

"Around town? I don't think so... Is there anything special there?"

"Kinda." There's some shops that you should get familiar with, being part of a rescue team and all. And there's some fun shops, too. Oh, and I haven't checked on the Marowak dojo recently, either. It may be reopening soon! Plus, I have to introduce you to Sio!"

"Sio? Who's that?"

"Sio's... Well he's my big brother!"

"You have a big brother? But I thought..." Cyria trails off.

"Well, he's not really my big brother big brother. He's more of... An honorary big brother. But still, I need to introduce you to him! He's still my big brother, and he hasn't even met my rescue team!" Avia says.

"You two go and have fun, I'm going to get some rest," Cyria says.

"Aw... Okay. I guess I can still introduce Jiro to Sio. Oh! The names almost rhyme. Jiro and Sio!" Avia says.

"Are you feeling alright? You're acting a big odd," Cyria says.

"Am I? Sorry, I'm just so excited! Come on, Jiro! We're going to see Sio!" Avia says.

"You're not going to take no for an answer, are you?" I ask.

"Nope! Come on, it'll be fun. And you need to know the shops if we're going to be a rescue team worthy of being on the expedition!" Avia says.

"Well then, I guess arguing with you is useless," I say.

"Yep! Come on, let's go!"


	22. Chapter 6 part 10: Out on the Town

After parting ways with Cyria, Avia led me to the town square.

"Okay, I think I should show you the duskull bank first. What do you think?" Avia asks. I look around, but don't see any shops that particularly catch my eye.

"Sure, why not?" I respond.

"Then follow me," She says. She leads me a few feet - - which I totally needed to follow her to go to - - to a purple shop run by a duskull.

"Hello Avia. Oh, and I see we have a new customer! My name is Dusk, I am the of guardian the money that many pokemon leave here. How may I help you?" The duskull asks.

"Right now I'm just giving Jiro here the grand tour of the town, but don't worry. We'll probably be back to deposit money here in a few days," Avia says.

"Then I shall look forward to that day. Have fun on your tour, Jiro!" Dusk says.

This process continues for the next ten or so minutes. Avia shows me a shop, I have a brief conversation with the shopkeeper, and then we're on our way.

"So when am I going to meet this, Sio pokemon anyways?" I ask after Avia has shown me all of the shops.

"Oh, right! Sio should be home by now! Come on, let's go!" Avia says. She looks at me expectantly.

"If I'm going somewhere, I need to know where I'm going," I point out.

"Right! Just follow me!" Avia leads me to a cliff overlooking the ocean.

"He lives in the ocean? And we have to be on a cliff to talk to him? What is your brother, a wailord?" I ask.

"No, silly! He doesn't live in the ocean, he lives in the cliff!"

"He lives inside of the cliff?"

"Yep!"

"So how do we get into this cliff?" Avia points to a bush near us. "How is an ordinary bush going to help us?"

"Hey, don't talk about Timothy the bush that way."

"You... You named the bush?"

"Well... Kinda." Avia laughs. "I was pretty young back then. So yes, I named Timothy. I was joking about disliking your treatment of the bush, though." Avia blushes, as if embarrassed. I probably shouldn't have reacted like that, now she feels bad... Maybe I can distract her from the issue.

"So, let's go meet Sio, shall we?"

"Yeah!" Avia leads me through the bush... er Timothy, and down a set of stairs into a room inside the cliff. It's tan in color, and seems to have teeth that partially block the view of the ocean and the setting sun. The room is designed to make it look like we're inside some pokemon's mouth... Well, this is an odd way to start. On the other side of the room, an umbreon stares at the wall. He seems to be deep in thought.

"Sio!" Avia says, running up and hugging the umbreon, who must be Sio. I would hope Avia doesn't hug random pokemon and shout 'Sio'. Sio doesn't seem startled at all, he just looks at Avia and smiles. It's like he was expecting us. But why would he be expecting us? Avia hadn't told him about our visit, I'm sure. When I look closely at his face, there seems to be a faint symbol. It looks like some kind of circle with the number seven on his left forehead. How did that get there?

"Hey kiddo," Sio says. "So I heard you've joined the Wigglytuff guild. I'm proud of you," Sio says. "So who's this? Is he a teammate?"

"Yep! Jiro, this is my big brother, Sio. Sio, this is Jiro," Avia says.

"So you're Avia's teammate, eh? I'm glad to meet you," Sio says.

"Thanks. So you're the famed Sio, eh?" I ask.

"You've heard of me? Huh..." Sio says.

"Yeah. Avia told me a little about you," I say.

"How thoughtful of you to mention me to your friends, kiddo. But you really don't need to. I'm not worth mentioning," Sio says, smiling at her.

"Do we really have to go over that again? Of course you're worth mentioning! How could I not let my friends know about my brother?" Avia says.

"Because there's no reason to. And there's always _them. _We wouldn't want _them _finding me, would we?" Sio says.

"Who? Oh yeah, right. Sorry, you're so nice, I keep forgetting that-" Avia starts.

"Shh." Sio says, gesturing to a azurill and a marill sleeping in a corner of the room. How did I not notice them? And while we're at it, who are the _them_ that Sio was talking about? This probably isn't something I should ask about, so I guess I'll just have to figure it out on my own.

"Oh. Azure and Marim! But that means... Their mother..." Avia trails off.

"Is no longer with us. So I took her place as the caretaker of these two children," Sio says.

"That's terrible. Azura was always so nice..." Avia says.

"Yes. It's truly a tragedy. She was sick, and they had to be brave for so long. Hopefully now they won't have to be brave any longer," Sio says.

"Sio helps children who don't have anyone to take care of them," Avia explains. "That's why he took care of me," Avia says. It looks like another topic I'd better not ask more about. Gosh, everything seems off limits. The mark, _them_, what happened to Avia's parents. Maybe I can piece something together. Let's see... Why would he have that mark? It appears to be a brand, based on the color and how the fur around it seems to have reacted.. Why would he have a brand? Let's see, brands are usually made from burns outside of battle, especially with a symbol like that. So if not from a fight, then were? Normally brands would be used to identify a pokemon, to show that they're different, and to make it obvious to everyone. Now why would he need to be known as different?

"Thinking hard, Jiro? You've got a look on your face that says you're mulling over something tricky," Sio says.

"Oh. Uh, it's nothing," I say. He's obviously very observant, to tell that this is my thinking face during his first time meeting me... He's probably very intelligent as well. Why would he have a distinguishing brand? And why the number seven? Well, he's trying to avoid _them_ so who would they be? A brand, trying to avoid a group...

"So are you two a fearsome twosome, or do you have any others with you?" Sio asks me.

"Well, there's Cyria too. She's a kirlia. She would be here with us, but she's tired from her fight earlier today," I say. It's like he's trying to interrupt my thinking. Like he doesn't want me to know something. That tone in his voice makes it obvious. It's like he almost wants me to know... I feel like the answer's obvious. Like I'm overlooking an plain fact that anyone could see... But what could it be?

"Ah. It's a shame I didn't get to meet her. How is she?" Sio asks.

"She's pretty, smart, and strong too!" Avia says.

"How old is she?" Sio asks.

"You're not thinking of..." Avia starts.

"Hey, I like to keep my options open. So is she around my age?" Sio asks.

"Yeah, more or less," Avia says.

"Then yeah, you should definitely introduce me to her sometime," Sio says, smiling.

"You silly umbreon," Avia says.

"So, that aside. How is the guild training? Are you holding up alright?" Sio asks.

"Yeah. Plus, I've got Jiro and Cyria with me," Avia says. Maybe I can starting thinking again. If I just let them talk for a while. The brand is to make him noticeable to _them_ on sight, in all likelihood. Now who would have captured him that we wouldn't want me to know about? Well, what organizations are there that use brands? They're a little outdated, in my opinion. I guess I could ask Chatot about it later if Avia isn't around. I would hate to have her know that I'm asking around about brands, she might realize that I'm trying to learn about her brother.

"Ah. So is Jiro here tough too?" Sio asks.

"Yeah, but not as tough as Cyria. He's our team strategist," Avia says.

"Ah, so you're a smart little eevee, eh? Oh dear. I'd love to chat more, believe me, I would. But I just remembered that I have a meeting with some adoption agents. Good luck with your rescue team training!" Sio says before walking out of the room.

"Isn't he the best?" Avia says.

"Yeah..." I say.

"He was right. You do seem pretty deep in thought. I guess that's why you're our team strategist! Always thinking. But be sure to let your brain rest, too. You've been using it pretty heavily today, haven't you?" Avia asks.

"Yeah, I guess it wouldn't hurt to get some rest," I say. Avia yawns.

"I'm pretty tired too. Let's go to bed, shall we? Tomorrow's another day of hard work! And we've got the work even harder than normal if we want to impress the guildmaster," Avia says. I guess I can't think when I'm tired, anyways. And what could it hurt to delay my knowledge of Sio for one night?

And so we head back to the guild to get some well deserved rest.

**Thanks for reading! And as always, don't forget to review!**

** If you're wondering why this story is called "A Midnight's Rose", it's part of a plot point for later. How does a rose play into anything? Only time will tell! **


	23. Chapter 7 part 1:The New Mawile in Town

I wake up before dawn. I didn't mean to wake up early, and honestly, I don't know how I did. I'm not tired, like I usually am when I wake up. And I know it's useless to try and fall asleep again. Somehow, though, I like being up so early. It's calming, in a way. I quietly sneak out of the room, doing my best not to wake Cyria and Avia, and walk to the lobby of the guild. From there, I walk outside of the guild, and to my right. I walk through the town square, the once energetic shops seem almost sad without their shopkeepers. And I keep walking. I walk all the way to the cliff, and just stare out at the ocean.

"Why am I here?" I wonder out loud. "What did you mean by bringing me here, Minna? And how do I become a hero worthy of my destiny? Is it a destiny I even want to face? Why no dream tonight? Are you busy? Do you trust that I can find my own way? What would you have me do? And how could I know that those things are the right things to do?"

"Those are some tough questions," A voice behind me says. "I hope you don't expect the ocean to have the answers to those, do you?" A voice behind me says. I turn around and see a female mawile. "You're sure up early. Having trouble sleeping?"

"I guess you could say that," I say, shrugging. "What about you?"

"I just got here to Treasure Town after a long journey, up until now, I haven't had time to sleep, I've always been moving," She says. "So, any reason you're asking yourself so many questions about destiny and some girl named Minna?

"It's hard to explain."

"Did she break up with you?"

"No, nothing like that. She's... A guide, of sorts. And she hasn't been guiding me much recently."

"Then she must think that you can handle guiding yourself."

"I wonder if that's really true..."

"Why wouldn't it be? Why wouldn't she trust you?"

"I guess there's no reason for her not to."

"Precisely. So stop asking the ocean questions she can't answer. At least ask someone who can say something back."

"I would have, but no one like that is awake."

"Well now you have me."

"If you don't mind my asking, what's so special about Treasure Town anyways?"

"It's right next to the beach, has a shopping center, a guild full of potential friends, great views of the ocean, what else does a girl need? Plus, it's a nicer place here than my past home. I don't have to worry as much that everyone's out to rob me. Not that anywhere is safe from the darkness in our world."

"What do you mean?"

"Haven't you noticed it? Everyone's getting meaner and meaner, colder and colder, losing faith in one another, and losing the sense of dignity they once had. Forgive me for saying so, but our situation is grim. So if you want to become a hero, maybe you should start by fighting that. Fighting against the hopeless darkness we're slowly sinking into."

"But how can you fight something that is a general trend in most pokemon?"

"You can't. That's why it would take a hero to do so. Because, in our world, there are no true heroes. Heroes are of legends and fables, reality rejects such radical ideas. But if it doesn't reject you, fight hard. It would be world it to see a world without so much suffering... I'm sorry to be such a downer, old habits die hard, I guess."

"Well, Treasure Town isn't as bad as your old home must have been. I haven't seen a single thief in town who wasn't brought here from somewhere else to be arrested."

"So are you part of the guild?"

"Yes."

"Why do you think pokemon commit crimes?"

"Because they need something, or because they want something."

"You make it sound so simple."

"Isn't it?"

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I can't really say. Just that if you're going to try to fix this broken mess of a world, good luck to you. If you want to be a true hero, then I'll believe that it's possible when I see it. Until later, then. I've got to get some shuteye." And with that she walked away, disappearing quickly from my sight. I look back to the ocean. And I never even learned her name. Hopefully I can ask when I see her again.

Well, that was an odd, and dark, conversation. Hopefully Treasure Town will be a better fit for her. It seems like pretty much anywhere would be better than her past home... Oh, that's right, I was going to ask Chatot about the brand. I guess I should do that before Avia wakes up... That is, if Chatot's awake. I guess I no reason to believe he is. I begin to walk back to the town square, only to find Chatot at the well nearby. What a stroke of luck! He stares into the well, I wonder what he's thinking right now. Maybe he's trying to figure out who should go on the expedition? Does he even have any say in that?

"Hey Chatot," I say once I am a few feet away from him.

"Oh, hello Jiro. You're up early," Chatot says.

"I could say the same for you," I say.

"Yes, I suppose you could. So do you need me for something?"

"Well, I have a question for you, but if you're busy I can ask some other time."

"No, it's fine. There's no time like the present!"

"Well, I saw a pokemon a few days ago with a brand in the shape of a circle with a number inside. Do you know where this pokemon could have gotten this brand?"

"Hmm... A circle with a number... Oh dear... Well, this pokemon is probably from the Guatachi Prison. We should be fine, as long as the number isn't one, two, five, eight, or ten. Please tell me it's not!"

"It's not."

"Thank Arceus. The numbers I listed are the numbers of very dangerous pokemon who have escaped from the prison at various times in its life. If one of them were here... Well, even I would have trouble defeating him or her."

"So every pokemon has their own number?"

"Yeah, but the first eight are the most significant ones. A band of past murderers of very important pokemon. Luckily, three, four, six and seven have all reformed. But as for the others..."

"So what about ten? You said that was a dangerous pokemon as well."

"A prison guard who went insane thanks to number two. The prisoners - - just the first ten - - are, ranked by how strong they are. One being the being the most dangerous, and eight being the least dangerous. Despite that, though, they are all far beyond your level. If you ever see a pokemon with a brand of a dangerous number, see me immediately. Hmm... The pokemon you saw, was the umbreon who lives in town? I believe his name is Sio"

"Yeah. I probably could have saved you a ton of time by telling you that first, huh?"

"Yes, but I'm glad I told you. It's better that you know. That way you'll know a former Guatachi prisoner when you see one. But then again, that probably won't happen. Better safe than sorry, I guess!"

"Yeah, thanks for your help, Chatot."

"No problem at all! I'm glad to help. Now if you'll excuse me, I must be getting back to the guild. I have a few things to attend to before everyone else wakes up." And with that Chatot flew away. I stand at the well for a few more seconds before beginning to walk back to the guild as well. Maybe now I can get some sleep.


	24. Chapter 7 part 2: The Forseen Future

Just before I enter the guild's door, Chatot runs out.

"We've got a thief," Chatot says, pointing downhill at the mawile I just talked to a few minutes ago. "Go catch her. I'll send the rest of your team to help as swiftly as possible," Chatot says. Without another word, I run after the mysterious mawile. I wonder why she stole from us. She sounded so much like she hated the darkness of this world, so why is she contributing to it?

I chase her down to the beach, where she enters the Beach Sea cave. I follow too, fully aware that this would be a perfect way to get ambushed, or maybe get knocked out and not be found for a while. But this is just a risk I have to take. Hopefully if she does knock me out, it'll be somewhere where Cyria and Avia can find me.

After a little more running, the mawile stops and turns around.

"So you've been sent to capture me, eh? You know, I don't think I ever got your name," the mawile says.

"It's Jiro, and yours?" I ask.

"It's Chrysantha... Jiro... You'll end up just like me, in the future, I can see it. You'll end up a criminal because life has left you no other options. I wish I could believe that you're the hero you want to be, but like I said, heroes don't exist in this world. Just give up while you still can, you'll be spared from the worst this world has to offer," the mawile says.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Do you know what my name means? It means golden flower. I used to be so innocent, so pure. But my faith in others kept failing me. My best friend tried to kill me, my father left me and my mom all alone... You don't know the horrors of having faith. But maybe if you just give up you won't have to suffer like I have. You won't know the pain of waking up and hoping that no one kills themselves by trying to kill you in cold blood. Just hoping that someone will treat you like you're worth something. There's only two types of pokemon in this world, the hurt, the hurting. So if I hurt, just a little, then I can avoid being hurt pokemon myself," Chrysantha says. If I can just keep her talking, then the rest of the team will arrive, and we can fight her together. Perfect, now if I can just keep her talking.

She begins to walk towards me, not seeming to fear an attack at all. "You know, maybe I can control this. Maybe I'm not such a monster after all..." Chrysantha says. She looks at me, and then her eyes widen, as if in shock. "How perfect. You, Jiro, you don't really see me as a monster, do you? Just a criminal, but not some kind of demon."

"Correct," I say. Why would I see her as a demon? That's just crazy. She continues to walk towards me until her face is only inches away from mine. I blush.

"When you do fall into the life that I have, or when you reach the depths of your despair. If you ever find yourself without a home to return to, or friends to aid you, come find me."

"I'll never be like you. I'm no criminal, I'm a warrior against crime."

"Yes, I suppose you are, for now. But I doubt that will last for as long as you think. Do you think you're better than I am, Jiro? Do you think that, because you have not been pushed to crime, you are superior? I foresee that you will become like me in the future. And maybe then we can find some value in this dark world together."

"I'll never join you. You're a thief, there's nothing more to it. I'd rather be friendless and alone than have you as a friend. And who are you to tell me what will happen, anyways?"

"I suppose that must make perfect sense to you now. You haven't committed your _crime _yet, after all. It will happen, though, it has to... And when it does, seek me out. You'll find it much easier to find me then." That's right, just keep talking. Avia and Cyria will come, and then you won't stand a chance.

"I won't need to find you, I know where you'll be. In prison."

"You still think you can win this fight? Maybe you haven't been paying enough attention. I _killed_ my best friend by accident. I didn't want to kill her, but she wanted to kill me. But something inside of me snapped. And somehow as faith in this world left, so did my will. I don't remember much of what happened, only that I can never wash my fangs of the blood that was spilled that day. They may look fine, but I always seem to taste blood when my tongue touches them. It's odd, I know. I really didn't want to hurt her. I loved her like a sister, I knew why she wanted to kill me... Anyway, I'm getting off topic. I'm a horrible monster, winning this fight is out of the question for you. If you fight, you'd be lucky to get away with your life. But then again, maybe you're different from her. She had only trained for a year or so, after all. She wasn't too strong. Maybe you think you can do better. But attacking me won't end well, I can promise you that." Her face is almost touching mine now. Now that I think about it, she does have a pretty face... No, I've got to focus! I need to stop her. "Remember what I said, Jiro. When you do lose everything, come to me. I'll be waiting." I feel a sudden pain in my side, the air seems to race out of my lungs. I fall to the ground. "Goodnight, sweet Jiro. May you sleep well, and have peaceful dreams."

I can't hold on...Not now... I can't let her get away... I have to be strong... And Avia... She wants to... go on the expedition so badly... I can't let her down...

I'm sorry. Avia...

I find myself unable to say conscious once again.


	25. Chapter 7 part 3: The Unbeatable Furret

"Jiro!" I hear a voice yell. I struggle to open my eyes and look in the direction of the voice. It's Avia. Good, she found me. But what Chrysantha said, about my _crime_. What did she mean? Does she honestly think that I'm going to sink to her level?

Avia runs to me. I'm still lying on my side. "Jiro, what happened?" Avia asks.

"She... Overpowered me," I say. But she didn't, not really. I was just distracted, I never bothered to attack her. But why did I lie to Avia without even thinking about it? I don't have anything to hide, do I? Maybe I want to hide the reason I was distracted? So was is it that I don't want Avia to know about Chrysantha's theory that I'll sink to her level? Or something else? The closeness of our face was kinda distracting... Why wouldn't I want Avia to know about that?

"Are you okay?" Avia asks. She seems panicked, like she thinks I'm severely wounded or something.

"Yeah," I say.

"Phew. I'm glad. We were worried. Don't you ever go and fight such a tough opponent alone," Avia says.

"I'm sorry. We... We won't be able to go on the expedition, will we? Not after I let her escape... I'm sorry, Avia. It's all my fault. I just had to do one thing, and I screwed it up," I say.

"You can't blame yourself. You tried your best, after all. How can we blame you after you fought with all you had?" Cyria says. Well that doesn't make me feel good. I know she's trying, and it would make me feel better if I had actually fought her. It feels more like she's insulting me."There's only one mark on you. She must punch hard."

"Yeah. It wasn't much of a fight," I say.

"We need to get you back to the guild," Avia says.

"We can take care of you there," Cyria says.

"No... Once you drop me off at the guild, please go on a mission," I say.

"No way! We can't go on a mission without you, Jiro!" Avia says.

"Yes you can. I'm not really as smart as I'd like to think. And, as I just proved, I'm pretty weak. I'm just dead weight," I say.

"You're really feeling beat up about this, aren't you? Stop wallowing in your own pain! Do you honestly think that we'd dare put a slim chance at going on an expedition over the well-being of a friend, do you? Jiro, you're coming with us on our mission, I don't care if I have to carry you!" Cyria says.

"That's nice, but only serves to prove my point. I'm just dead-" I start.

"Don't say it! Who are you to say what you are to the team? If we didn't want you on the team, we wouldn't have spent all this time looking for you!" Cyria interrupts.

"Yeah, come on, Jiro! What's got you so down? The Jiro I know wouldn't get so down after losing just one silly fight! The Jiro I know would keep fighting!" Avia says.

"You're right. I'm just being silly. Let's go, shall we?" I say. I try to stand up, but fall back down again after feeling a severe pain in my side. "I think walking's not going to work very well." I feel myself lifting from the ground. I look at Cyria, who is below me now. I move toward her until I'm a few feet away, but I never attempted to move.

"There. I told you I'd carry you, didn't I? Now let's go. We've already received our next mission. Hopefully we can convince the guildmaster that one out of two isn't bad."

"So this mawile you fought, how did she beat you, anyways?" Avia asks once we're on the road to our next mission. Cyria keeps me floating near the ground, in between herself and Avia.

"Well, she was faster than I was. She ran over and punched me in the side before I could counter-attack," I say.

"She certainly sounds like a strong opponent," Cyria says.

"Yeah, she was," I say.

After walking for a little while longer, we reach a clearing in a forest, when there is a furret laughing oddly.

"It's finished! It's finally finished! The ultimate device! I am now invincible!" the furret yells.

"That's the criminal we were sent to capture," Cyria whispers to me. The furret turns around and sees us.

"Perfect timing! Two lovely ladies have come to capture me. And it looks like you've already captured one convict... However; I will not be so easy to defeat! Suddenly, Cyria falls to the ground. Avia falls soon after. Now that Cyria's psychics aren't supporting me, I fall a few feet.

"It's a wonderful tool, is it not? Even a rescue team can't stop me!" The furret says. He thinks I'm a criminal like he is... Now I just need to use this to my advantage.

"Yeah. What was that, anyways, psychics?" I ask, slowly walking towards him. He laughs.

"So it really is perfect, then! Did you notice how I slightly open my mouth before attacking? That was because my mouth is rigged with reflective devices of unimaginable power! I could defeat anyone with this strength!" The furret says. I think I have an idea... But it means pretending to be a criminal for just a bit. I don't want to sink that low... I really do think of myself as above criminals, don't I? Well, I am, but I have to sink down to stay up.

"Yes. It's a nearly perfect weapon," I say.

"Nearly perfect? What flaw could there possibly be? Any pokemon who sees my beam of light is put into so much pain that there body is put into shock!"

"Yes, but the problem is, what if you're attacked from behind? What if you don't have time to attack? What you need is a partner, someone who has your back, to keep you safe." I continue to walk toward him.

"Are you offering to be that partner?"

"I am."

"But why?"

"You saved me from a life in custody. That's reason enough for me. Plus, I wouldn't mind being a right-paw pokemon to a powerhouse like you." I'm almost to him, just a little farther!

"Well then, I accept-" His sentence is cut off when I tackle him, pinning him down, and bite down hard on his neck. I close my eyes, so that his light can't hurt me, though I do feel some moderate burning on my face. He screams in pain and struggles. After a few minutes of struggling, he stops moving.

Good. I'm exhausted. But how am I supposed to get everyone back to the guild? I'm so tired... I just need, a little more energy.

Come on, Jiro. Not now. If you don't do this, the furret may wake up and kill me. I can't die! Not yet!

I drag the furret's body over to where Cyria and Avia are. Before sitting down and trying to catch my breath. I'm both physically and mentally exhausted. I look at Cyria and Avia to make sure they're breathing, they are. It looks like the furret's attacks aren't lethal, just painful. I'm glad. But I have no idea what condition Cyria and Avia are in. I need to bring everyone back to the guild. Maybe if I just get there, I can go get help. I begin to move, but feel something gripping my neck. I see the furret out of the corner of my eye.

"It's too bad. But you have to die!" The furret yells.

I try to struggle, but I soon find that everything goes black.


	26. Chapter 8 part 1: No Expedition?

I'm conscious... Where am I? Do I really want to open my eyes and find out? The last thing I saw was furret had knocking me out. He could have put me anywhere. I could be dangling over a volcano right now. I open my eyes and see that I'm back at the guild. Or I could be completely fine at the guild, in the team room. How did I get here?

I look around, Cyria's still unconscious, but Avia's awake, staring at me.

"What happened while I was out? How did you defeat him?" She asks me with a look of wonder in her eyes. I shrug.

"I didn't. I got close, but he ended up knocking me out. But I didn't bring us here, that's for sure," I tell her.

"But if you didn't, then who did?" Avia asks.

"I don't know. It couldn't have been Cyria, she was unconscious too... I guess that means the most likely conclusion would be that the furret left us here," I say.

"Why would he do that?"

"Well, he thought I was a criminal, maybe he wanted me arrested, and just thought that you two weren't worth killing?"

"No, that's not true at all. He would have loved to kill us, I'm sure," Cyria says. She seems awake now, but she doesn't sit up, she just lies on her bed.

"But then how did we get here?" Avia asks.

"Have you ever sleep-walked?"

"Um... No, not really. I've sleep-talked a once or twice," Avia says.

"Well, if you train enough, you can fight while unconscious. It's gotten to the point where I can even vaguely remember what happened while I was fighting. After he... did whatever he did to Jiro, I can't remember what, I knocked him out. He's in custody now. That's all I remember, though."

"Cyria, that's amazing!" Avia says.

"Yeah, but it's not without its drawbacks. I'm not too good at it, so I won't be able to do much today. Maybe I can take walk later, but there's no way I can do a mission today," Cyria says.

"Aw... Well, Jiro, we're going to have to work really hard if we want to go on the expedition! We can't fail again!" Avia says.

"Yeah, but don't overdo it. I won't be there to save you two this time," Cyria says.

"Right, we'll be careful," I say.

"Oh gosh, what time is it? The morning cheers! Have they already started?" Avia asks.

"Has Loe come in here yelling yet? No, so you've probably got a few minutes," Cyria says.

"Good point. Still, we should probably get going, anyways. Just in case," Avia says.

So we head to the guild lobby, where we recite the morning cheers. I try to be enthusiastic, but I find myself not being able to be as enthused as Avia is. She always seems to be that way.

"Oh, one more thing!" Wigglytuff says. "I'll be announcing the members of the expedition in a few days! So everyone should try their best to be selected!"

The rest of the guild fans out into their own groups after Wigglytuff is done speaking. Probably talking about the expedition. As Avia and I are about to go to select a mission, Chatot stops us.

"So you two didn't catch the thief, did you?" Chatot says. He sighs. "She stole many valuable items, including the guildmaster's precious perfect apples. It looks like I'll have to spend my whole day trying to find them." He sighs again. " It pains me to say this, but you two should give up on being selected for the expedition. Combining your failure to catch the mawile, and your lackluster performance in the tournament, it doesn't seem likely. Take Loe for example. He may have lost the tournament in the first round, but at least he was been consistently completing hard missions on his own. You three haven't been performing well enough to really warrant going on the expedition."

"What? B-but what about the furret we caught? He had created this device that can knock a pokemon out almost instantly, and we defeated him!" Avia says.

"Yes, but he was mentally unstable, thus very easy to trick. Plus, the guildmaster values consistent good performances to occasional great ones. Well, I'm very busy. Good luck with your missions today!" Chatot says.

"Well that's demoralizing. Hey Jiro, let's prove him wrong! We can do this! We're team Beyond! Let's go beyond his expectations, and get onto the expedition!" Avia says.

"Well then, I see someone else appreciates a good pun. Glad someone does," Cadel says.

"I don't believe we've formally met. My name's Cadel," Cadel says. He extents a paw (or whatever squirtles have) to Avia. Who touches it with the tip of her paw and shakes it.

"It's nice to meet you. Cadel. I'm Avia, and this is my partner Jiro," Avia says with a smile. Gosh, she really is eternally enthusiastic. How does she do that?

"And my name's Bryce. Sorry if we got off on the wrong paw, Jiro," Bryce says.

"You've met before?" Avia asks.

"Yeah, it's a long story. It involves the fifteen greatest nights of our bachelor lives," Cadel says. Avia gives me an odd look.

"He's joking," Bryce tells her.

"Oh, okay. I was confused there, for a second," Avia says.

"What, is Jiro not the party type?" Bryce asks. Avia looks at me as if to say, "it's your life, do it's your choice. Do you want to tell them?"

"I don't know. I don't remember any parties. You see, I woke up on the beach with amnesia a little while ago. I didn't remember anything but my name. I didn't even remember my species. Avia met me that day, and we haven't been apart for such a long span of time since. That's why she was so confused," I explain.

"Oh hey. I have amnesia too. You see-" Cadel starts.

"I already told Jiro about it," Bryce says.

"Oh... Well then, now I feel awkward. Anyways, we've got to go grab a mission. Have fun saving pokemon and what not!" Cadel says. Bryce and Cadel walk away, toward the main floor of the guild. We follow them to the mission boards.

"You know, we've fought tons of criminals, but we haven't done any rescues yet. Do you think we should do one of those?" Avia asks.

"Sure," I say. I scan the rescue mission board until I find one that catches my eye. 'Trapped by a siren's song' I grab it off of the board. It's D- ranked, so we should be able to do it.

"Did you find a good one?" Avia asks. I give her the request.

"Help! A beautiful siren has trapped me, and I can't escape. I want to leave, but I'm too in love with her! She must be using some form of attract!" Avia reads.

"Let's save that innocent..." Avia starts, she looks at the paper again "Wooper! We're going to save the heck out of him!"

"Yeah, that's the spirit!" I say. So we start heading out of the guild.

"Hey, I've got a question," I ask once we're on the road. "How are you so happy all the time? In the time I've seen you you've seldom not been very happy," I say. Avia blushes.

"Um... W-well it's because I... Because you... and Cyria... Because you're both... It's because I get to live my dream with friends every day!" Avia says.

"You seem pretty unsure that's why you're happy," I say. Avia laughs.

"What can I say? Some things are just hard to word right."


	27. Chapter 8 part 2: Impossible Rescue

Eventually, we reach the area surrounding the lake we were told about.

"We should be hearing some kind of song soon, if this really is a siren in the strictest sense of the word," I say.

"I don't think we're dealing with a siren like in those dusty old mythology books," Avia says. As we continue to walk towards the lake a hear a faint voice, singing.

"You were saying?" I say. Avia rolls her eyes. As we continue to get closer, I find that my feet are moving without any direction from me. "Avia?"

"Can't move your feet the way you want, too?" Avia asks.

"Not at all," I say.

"So what should we do?" Avia asks.

"I'm going to block your ears. This may get a little awkward, though, I hope you don't mind," I say.

"The most important thing is that we don't fail again. If you've got a plan, then use it," Avia says.

I tilt my body to the left, and just as I theorized, I am able to move, somewhat. I move to the left, and end up in front of Avia, with the lake to my right my feet still sidestepping towards the lake. I move my tail over one of her ears, and press the side of my face against the other. It's not a perfect system, but hopefully it'll work. That way at least one of us will have her wits about her when we face this siren. Well, hopefully.

We continue moving like this for a while, until the lake is in vision. There we see a wooper and a vaporeon. The vaporeon has a brand with the number eight in a circle on her left forehead, and a fancy necklace around her neck. When she sees us, she stops singing and launches an ice beam in between us, forcing us to separate to dodge it. Now her song can work on both of us.

"What do we have here?" The vaporeon says. Her voice is smooth like honey. "A rescue team, newbies, by the looks of it." Avia starts trembling, she must have notice the brand. Eight is a hostile number, so she could, and very well may kill us where we stand. The vaporeon laughs.

"She's trembling. It looks like she knows who I am. What about you, little eevee? You're shaking as well, but not as much as she is. Perhaps you just know that I must be dangerous if she's trembling so much? Or perhaps you've heard of me, and you're just too foolish to be as afraid as she is?" The vaporeon says.

"How was this a D- rank mission?" I whisper to myself.

"Because I wanted it to be. You don't honestly think he was able to send that request, did you? You see, I need some more help. He just wasn't working quickly enough. So, I figured, why not take a rescue team? But of course, a higher rank rescue team may actually pose a threat," the vaporeon says. Without Cyria, she's right. We can't beat her. We're not strong enough, not for one of the eight. Even if we had Cyria, we still wouldn't be much of a match for her... We need to get out of here. But if we try and run, she can just catch us with her song. And my strategy only works for one pokemon. If we try it, she can just call me back with her song.

"D-darn it... If only Sio were here..." Avia says.

"Sio? Oh, so you know him? My my, aren't you a special. How is he, anyway? Is he doing alright?" The vaporeon asks. Avia doesn't respond. "Remember, I can kill you right now. I would suggest telling me."

"H-he's doing fine," Avia says.

"So are you his daughter, then? He did always want to start his own family," the vaporeon says.

"I-I'm his adopted younger sister..." Avia says weakly.

"Oh. Well then, I can't kill you, can I? Well, your timing is actually perfect. We just found what I was looking for a few minutes ago, so I have no need to make you look for it. Take the wooper back, will you? And be good to your older brother, Arceus knows he was good to me," the vaporeon says. With that, she jumps into the lake and vanishes.

"Well... We survived! Horray!" Avia says.

"Let's get you back to town," I say to the wooper.

"T-thank you! I was so worried, I'd be searching forever. And when she didn't let me go after we found it. I... I..." The wooper says. He begins to cry. Avia puts a reassuring leg around him.

"Sh... It's okay. We're here now. You'll be back home before you know it," Avia says.

"B-but. There is no home," the wooper says.

"What do you mean?" I ask as gently as I can.

"There's no home in this world... for criminals like me," the wooper says he spits some kind of liquid out at Avia. It hits her, and she falls down.

"Avia!" I scream.

"Don't worry. This kind of poison only puts her to sleep. I wouldn't dare hurt such a lovely specimen. You, on the other hand, I'm completely fine with hurting!" The wooper says, shooting a beam of the liquid at me. I dodge the beam, moving right into the path of a second blast. I can't move, and it's coming in fast. Before the beam hits me, a shadow ball comes from the forest and blocks it. Another shadow ball hits the wooper, knocking him out.

I hear a rustling in a nearby bush. Someone just saved me, and then ran away. If I didn't have Avia and this wooper with me, I'd give chase. Who would save me, though? It looked like a shadow ball. The only pokemon I know who can do that is Sio, unless I'm forgetting someone. But if it was Sio, why would he run away? Well, I can't worry about this now. I have to drag Avia and this wooper back to the guild. Well, this should be fun.

After having to drag Avia and the wooper for a few hours, I finally reach the guild, where Magnezone, the chief of police, relieves me of the wooper. Then I take Avia to our room. Cyria helps me put her into her bed, we try to make her as comfortable as we can. Then we go to our own beds, and get some well deserved rest.


	28. Chapter 9 part 1: The Other Avia

"Hey, wake up! Come on! You want to get on the expedition team, don't you? That means no slacking!" Loe yells.

"Good morning Jiro, Cyria. Are you two ready for the most epic mission ever?" Avia says.

"Yeah, let's do it! We're going to get on to that expedition!" I say.

"Yeah, we can do it!" Cyria adds.

We go and recite the morning cheers, before we all disperse, Wigglytuff stops us.

"Before you go, I want to announce that we will be deciding the expedition members tomorrow! So everyone try your best to impress us today!" Wigglytuff says. With that, the guild members disperse. Most go off to grab a mission, but some stay behind to chat with a friend or two. As for us, we head to the mission board.

"I found a good one," Cyria says. She grabs a poster from the wall. "_Please, save me from this! I ended up in some kind of demonic cave. I had to fight myself, and I lost. I played dead, so hopefully she won't notice me. Please, help me! _It's probably the hardest mission would could complete. It's C- rank. Plus, I've done some research on this cave before. The cave of reflections... I want to see if my ideas hold true."

"So what does this mean? Will we be fighting ourselves?" I ask.

"It's likely. Same personality, same fighting style, same memories, same pretty much everything," Cyria says.

"So how do we defeat ourselves? How do we know they would even attack us?" I ask.

"That's the one thing that's different. Any clones made there fight to kill us, that's how their minds are engineered, though I don't know too much about that part myself. Anyways, I've developed a strategy, but it's not complete yet. Here's what we do, I'll take on the other Cyria, Avia, you take on the other Jiro, and Jiro, you take on the other Avia," Cyria says.

"But how could I take on the other Jiro if he's as smart as our Jiro?" Avia asks.

"And how will we be able to tell which pokemon are clones, and which ones are real?" I add.

"With chemicals. My own formula, I call it indiblue. That's short for indicator blue. It's a dye, but it's a special kind of dye. The cave can't mimic it. So, if I just put a little on all of us, we'll know who's who." Cyria runs down to the guild's bottom floor, and returns a minute later with a small bottle full of a blue liquid and a strip of paper. She pours some of the blue liquid on her left hand, and draws a wide line under both of my eyes, both of Avia's eyes, and both of her own eyes. "There, perfect. As for strategy, I have one for myself, and I have one for you, Avia, but I don't have one for Jiro." Cyria writes on the strip of paper with the dye, and folds it. Then she gives it to Avia. "Read this after the clones appear. They'll have all of your knowledge from when they're cloned, but if you can get the perfect strategy after that, you're golden. And because it's written in the dye, the other Avia won't have the same information. As for you, Jiro, you should be fine. Avia and I shouldn't take too long, and we can help you when you're done." Avia puts the slip of paper in the team bag.

"So are we ready?" I ask.

"One thing before we go, Avia. The instructions on that paper, and the fight we're going to have... I guarantee you won't like them. It's not an honorable way of fighting by any means, and not an opponent we want to fight. But you have to do it. Not just to get on the expedition, but for the safety our client, and for the safety of Jiro and me, and yourself, you must follow through without hesitation," Cyria says. Avia gives Cyria an odd look.

"Okay, I'll do it. For everyone!" Avia says.

"Perfect, and now we're ready," Cyria says.

"Then let's go kick some clone butt! Oh, one more thing. How will we be able to tell our client from the clone of her?" Avia asks.

"Well, the one that attacks us is the clone. If neither one attacks, we'll work it out when we get there," Cyria says.

And so we head out to the cave. It takes us around an hour of walking to get there. But we stay at a calm, leisurely pace, so that we aren't tired for our fight.

When we reach the cave, I go in first, with Avia and Cyria close behind. In front of us, out of the ground, I see another eevee, another vulpix, and another kirlia. The ground where they are coming from is black, a swirling vortex. The cave is pretty wide, too. The vortex disappears once they are fully out of the ground.

"Okay, let's face it. We both know the strategy. I'm going to take your Avia, your me is going to take our Avia, and our Cyrias are going to battle. Let's just spread out in a civil manner," the other Jiro says. We all do what he says, and I move to a specific spot near the left of the cave, and farther in than everyone else. It's a large cave, there's more than enough room for our three fights, and there's a path that continues on, deeper into the cave.

"So it's come to this, eh Jiro?" The other Avia says. She sighs. "Whatever your Avia has on that slip of paper had better be good, she's no match for Jiro."

"Wait, but then aren't you saying that-" I start.

"I'm no match for you? Yes, I am not, not really. It's sad... Sio always told me that I'm a match for anyone. That I'm just as strong as I let myself be... I hope you understand, your Avia feels very similarly to how I do. The only thing stopping her from this is the paper." She pulls out the paper from her bag, but hers is blank. I wonder what this could possibly say. It must be something brilliant. To make Avia not only want to fight, but be able to fight evenly with you..." She sighs again.

"You're a pretty good actress, you know that? It's perfect. Stroke my ego, distract me from the battle, act all sad. You almost had me. But I know Avia isn't really like this. She never gives up," I say. Avia frowns at me.

"Well then, there goes outsmarting Jiro from my idea list. I guess that just leaves actually fighting. I'm sorry, Jiro, but prepare to die!" Avia says. She starts inhaling to prepare a flamethrower.

"Wait!" I say. She exhales normally.

"What is it?" She asks.

"I'm not ready yet. You asked if I was ready, I'm not. I have a question."

"Yes?"

"I never got a good answer from you about why you're so happy all the time. Only one of us is going to leave here, and as they say, 'two can keep a secret if one of them is dead'. So what is it that makes you so happy?" The other Avia blushes and stares at the ground. I use the opportunity to run over to her and bite her neck. If she's not going to play fair, then neither am I. Not that I ever actually fight fair.

She stumbles back a feet feet and falls to the ground. She shakes me off and begins to run deeper into the cave. I give chase, and she eventually stops. When she does, I tackle her and bite her neck. She struggles, but I pin her down and continue to bite her until she stops struggling. I stand over her body for a few seconds, she's still breathing. I don't want to kill her, so hopefully this is enough. The fight with her was easy, so much so that it's also scary...

I hear footsteps coming toward me.

I turn around and see Avia running toward me. But her dye isn't on her face. I look back at the body near my feet, it also doesn't have dye. How can there be two Avias without dye?

"Jiro! Are you okay?" Avia asks when she gets within a few feet of me. When I look at her, I see that she has many cuts and bruises. Her fight must have been tough.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But your dye. Why isn't there dye on your face?" I ask.

"It came off during the fight. You know you, he used the last bit of his energy to get rid of the dye to make you think that I'm the fake Avia. I guess he was hoping that you'd still be fighting with the fake Avia and get confused," Avia says. I give her an odd look.

"Still not convinced? Here, maybe this will convince you," Avia says. She leans in and kisses me. After about ten seconds or so, she breaks away from the kiss, blushing. I blush as well. Well that was... Fun... And unexpected. "Believe me now?"


	29. Chapter 9 part 2: Too Romantic

"Show me the paper Cyria gave you," I say.

"I burned it by accident during the fight," Avia says. She isn't acting like Avia normally does. Either she's acting odd, or she isn't Avia, or even a clone of Avia. But then what is she?

"Well isn't that convenient? Well then, tell me what _my_ paper says," I say.

"It... I don't remember," she says. Darn it. I can't let the conversation point drop now, I need to push further.

"Oh come on. I know you remember. We recited these papers tons of times before we got here," I say.

"Your paper says, 'You can do it, Jiro. I love you'," Avia says. Well then, she's obviously a fake. Now let's see if I can end this without a fight.

"So you are the real Avia! I move my face close to hers. "I think I'd believe it more if I had another kiss," I say. She closes her eyes and moves her lips toward mine, meanwhile, I bite her neck. She screams, and flails a bit, but ends up being unconscious fairly quickly.

Well, that's two fake Avias down. But if there's already two fakes, who knows how many others there are. I look back at the second fake Avia, but see a zorua where she used to be. So that was a zorua, then. Our client... Our client must be a zorua, then, and this must be her clone. No one in their right minds would just wander in here, right?

Now we just need to find our client. But right now I should go back to Avia and Cyria, just in case they need my help.

"I-is it safe?" A weak voice asks. I see a zorua slowly walking toward me.

"Yeah. You must be the one who asked for a rescue team, right?" I ask.

"Yeah, that's me. So you're the hero who came to save me? Well then, I just have to give you a little something," she giggles and walks over to me. Once she's next to me, she kisses me on the cheek. The other zorua was a clone of her, that means they had the same personality. The other zorua thought that the best way to keep from figuring out her identity was to kiss me... So that means that she's probably a massive flirt. Well, this may not end well. Avia, Cyria, please finish your fights soon, I really don't want to be stuck with _her _for too long. Not that I particularly mind being kissed, but when you think of the implications of the sentiment, it just ends up as a confusing mess. I have no idea if she's actually interested in me, if she's just flirting for the heck of it, or if she's just thanking me. And spending more time with her may only serve to confuse me more. Either that, or make it really awkward if Avia and Cyria see us. I don't image most pokemon like knowing that their friend was being kissed while they were fighting.

"So shall we leave?" The zorua asks.

"The thing is. I have two friends fighting their clones right now. They have plans to defeat them, and will win, I'm sure. But I'd hate to get in the way of those plans. So we may have to wait here until they come and get us," I say. I sound more sure of the words I say than I actually am. I believe them, yes, but feel guilty about it all the same.

"So then, what's your name?" The zorua asks.

"I'm Jiro, and you?"

"I'm Gelia. But my friends call me Gills," she says.

"Gills?"

"Yep. I can hold my breath for five minutes underwater. So they started calling me Gills. The name ended up sticking," Gelia says.

"So how did you end up in here anyways, Gelia?" I ask

"Gills, please. We're friends, aren't we?" She asks. Moving her body close to fine, and nuzzling me a little. I take a step away.

"Sure... so Gills, how did you end up here, anyways?" I ask.

"Wait. Why did you back away?" She asks.

"Um... I asked my question first..."

"Fine, I ended up here because I wanted to see if the cave truly did make clones. Now answer my question."

"Because I'm not comfortable with being that close."

"And why not?"

"It's nothing personal."

"So what's your reason, then?" I need a reason. A lie, a truth, something. If not, who knows what she'll do...

"I... I... Just don't-"

"Oh, I get it! You're shy, aren't you? Well then, if that's the only problem, we can solve that, no problem." I... I need something... I've got it!

"Well, you see. I made a promise to a friend. I promised him that I wouldn't show any interest in any girls until I could prove to him that a specific girl we know likes him as more than a friend. It's odd, I know. But I always hold to my promises."

"Oh... I see. Good for you, then. I hope you're able to prove it to him soon."

"Yeah, but please don't tell anyone about this. My vulpix friend is the girl, and I really don't want her to know."

"Oh, of course. Your secret's safe with me!"

"Thanks."

"Jiro!" I hear Cyria's voice yell. I look towards where the voice is coming from, the cave hides most of the figure, but I can tell that it's Cyria, and there's a four-legged pokemon following behind her. I can't quite make out the pokemon. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine! I found the client, and defeated her clone!" I say.

"Good job!" Cyria yells. She moves closer, and I can finally see the pokemon next to her, it's Avia. Thank Arceus. When Avia reaches me, she nuzzles me a little.

"Don't even try to kill me again. It's not fun, fighting one of your best friends. Almost killing him..." Avia says.

"She had it pretty rough. I'm sure you can imagine what she feels like, you did have to fight Avia, after all. It must have been hard to hurt her, hurting someone who looked so much like Avia, acted like her, and had her memories," Cyria says. Now I feel bad for having no problem with attacking her with no remorse. I'm a bad friend. "Anyways, let's head home, shall we?"

"Yeah. That sounds nice," Gills says. Gills is a really weird name, now that I think about it...

After we reach the guild, we say goodbye to Gills. Then, the three of us head to bed.

"Jiro," Avia says after I have been trying, and failing to get some sleep for several minutes. "Are you up? I can't sleep. Don't worry, it's not about having to hurt the clone you. I'm fine, really. But I'm just too nervous about the expedition selections tomorrow. I know Chatot said we don't have much of a chance, but I really can't help but be anxious. Plus, we did do a very hard mission today, and everything worked out perfectly. Maybe Wigglytuff will see that, and select us. I guess we won't really know until tomorrow, though. I wish I could just get to sleep so that I wouldn't have to spend all this time waiting... I guess you're not awake, are you? And yet, it still feels like you understand me. We really are team Beyond. I can feel emotions beyond my own, sometimes, I swear that I feel yours too. I don't know, maybe it's just me, maybe I don't actually feel anything. But every now and again there's this little spark. Like we feel the same way, you know? I'm just rambling now. I can't make sense of any of this. Well, goodnight, Jiro. No matter what comes tomorrow, we'll still have one another. And with great friends like you and Cyria by my side, well. Well maybe we don't need to go on this expedition. As long as we're all together." Avia stops talking, and her breathing begins to follow a familiar rhythm.

Sleep. I try to match my breathing with hers, and find myself instantly becoming tired. Maybe she's right, maybe we are connected in some way.


	30. Another Interruption

The cave is dark, and chilling wind seems to come from inside. A normal pokemon would deem this place as an odd, creepy cave with no value. But I am not an ordinary pokemon. Ordinary pokemon are not professional thieves, ordinary pokemon don't break _into_ prisons. Ordinary pokemon don't know Chiara.

But what was that letter about? Chiara, she wouldn't give up on her life's work, would she? She must have lied, the prison must have done something to her. But with the troops in here, she could take Chiara back. It was all because of Jiro. He took her away from me. And he will pay. Oh yes. He will pay with blood.

"So this is the place, eh?" Oshal says, interrupting my thoughts.

"Yes," I say.

"Then why are we just standing around? Let's go inside, shall we?" Oshal says.

"We should, yes," I answer.

"Then what's the holdup?"

"It's nothing. Let's go."

We walk into the cave; there's not much there. The place is lit by torches, which is odd, it had seemed so dark before. In the middle of the cave there is a wooden table... I feel a chill... It's odd, though, I should feel heat more than everything. And why is there a breeze? I wonder if it's because of the minions we have here. That must be it. And it would explain why this place seems so dark from the outside. They added torches and a table, how odd of them...

"Well then. There's no enemies around. I guess I don't need you anymore," Oshal says. He fires a blast of water at me, but it's deflected by a ghostly hand right before it hits me.

"Did you honestly think that I wasn't prepared for you to do this? Come now, how stupid do you think I am? It was obvious from the start that you were only after the treasures here. And so you followed me all the way here, pretending it was because you were in love. It was a predictable trick. But to honestly think that I was unprepared to fight you in my own mentor's hideout is just insane. Oshal... You were foolish. And now you should prepare yourself to die," I say.

"It's just you and one haunter, I can take you," Oshal says.

"Is it really just one?" I ask. From behind him, another haunter appears and licks him. I see him try to move, but he fails. He's paralyzed. This is all working out so perfectly. "Dispose of him however you wish. So long as he's dead, I don't care how you kill him." A few haunters appear out of thin air and take away Oshal's body. I hear him scream ten seconds after. It looks like they're thirsty enough for a quick kill... They must not have many visitors. Another haunter appears in front of me.

"Ebony. It's been a while," he says. "So are the rumors true? Has Chiara really been captured?"

"Unfortunately. But your oath will be carried out through me," I say.

"Of course, master," he says. "So what will be our first course of action? Shall we save Chiara, or shall we take our revenge?" His tongue moves around in a circle. He's just as hungry to kill as the rest of the,.

"In order to see how tough we are, we're going to need a fight. And revenge sounds like the perfect way to do it," I say.

"Perfect. I will get my brothers and sisters ready. I trust you will... lure our victim here?" He says.

"Oh yes. That will be easy," I say.

Watch out, Jiro, you're next on my kill list. Spend the next few days of your life having fun, because in a few more days there will no longer be a Jiro to deal with.

**Stay tuned for the next installment, when we find out if team Beyond made it into the expedition!**


	31. Chapter 11: Expedition Selection

Today is the day...

The expedition results...

Ugh... I don't want to get up...

What time is it?

Can I just have a few more minutes?

"Jiro! Wake up!" Avia's voice says... I guess I don't have another five minutes. Darn. I get up and look at Avia. She's moving her legs up and down in anticipation. Well someone's excited. Cyria, on the other hand, is just standing calmly behind her, her arms crossed.

"I'm up," I say.

"Perfect! Then let's go!" Avia says. She leads Cyria and me to the guild lobby. Once everyone is assembled, Chatot starts talking.

"I'm sure you're all excited to hear who is going on the expedition. So let's just skip straight to that. If I call your name, please step forward. We will be operating in groups of three, so make sure you know who your teammates are. The first team will be... Just Wigglytuff... The second team will be Spiral, Ri and Ica. The third team will be Scythe, Amma and Sunflora. And the fourth and final team will be Cyria, Rosie, and Loe. Those of your who weren't called, please follow me to the upper floor," Chatot says.

Avia was so excited... She really wanted to go. I mean, it's great that Cyria gets to go, but Avia wanted this more than any of us. Is this my fault? Maybe if I had worked harder, maybe then the whole team could have gone. Poor Avia. I know she said she'd be okay if she didn't get to go, but she's got to be feeling down right now. I look at Avia while following Chatot, she flashes a smile at me, but I can tell it's fake. I'll make it up to you, Avia, somehow...

Once we're all assembled at the second floor of the guild, Chatot continues talking.

"I know you must all be feeling pretty down. You have all worked hard to be selected for the expedition, and I respect that. That said, we're going to mix it up around here. The best way to get stronger, you see, is to be put in new situations. So, I've decided upon groups of two for you all to be working in today. Also, I've preselected your missions. As for the groups, Bryce will be with Diglett, Avia will be with Mino, Cadel will be with Spark, Jiro will be with Xya, and I will be with Plusa. You all have something to learn from your partner, thus why you are in the group you're in. As I said, I've already picked the missions for today, so I'll hand those out now," Chatot says. He hands one member from each group a paper. Xya receives the paper, so I go over to her.

"Hey, so what do we have for a mission?" I ask. Xya skims the paper briefly and blushes slightly.

"Uh... We're going huntail hunting," Xya says.

"Okay, that doesn't sound too bad," I say.

"No, it should be easy enough... It's just..."

"What is it?"

"The mission location... It's... It's at Lover's Reef..."

"Oh... That's a place for couples, isn't it?" Xya nods. "So they're all going to mistake us for a couple..."

"Yes. It may be a tad awkward. It shouldn't be too bad, though. We must march on! Come, let's go!"

"Right behind you."

And so we walked to Lover's Reef...

Arceus, I hope there's no one around. It won't be awkward as long as there's no one there to make a big deal about all of this.

Once we arrive, I take a good look at my surroundings. It's an area surrounding a lake, with a few rocky cliffs about fifteen feet high. There are also some parts almost level with the lake. The whole area is made of light-orange rocks. There are some pokemon around, but not too many. And all of the pokemon here are on the cliffs. Good, we can probably get in an out without this being too awkward. This place looks nice. It could be fun to visit, someday. To look out at the sunset. A cute looking glameow walks over to us.

"Well aren't you two the cutest couple?" The glameow says. Xya and I blush.

"I take it I can't punch her?" Xya asks.

"Not yet, no. That would be rude," I say.

"Well you two sure are violent lovebirds, aren't you? I take it you're still a new couple, and kinda embarrassed about the whole thing? Don't worry, no one will judge your romantic passion for one another here," the glameow says.

"How about now?" Xya asks.

"Not yet, we should ask about the huntail first," I say.

"Oh! Are you two the rescue team that I send for?" The glameow laughs. "Honest mistake, you two do look like such a cute couple. You should really consider it... Anyway, I'm the caretaker of this land, Glamia," the glameow says.

"I'm Jiro, and this is Xya," I say. "So what's the deal with this huntail?"

"Well, there aren't supposed to be any pokemon in this lake. But somehow the huntail got in. He's attacked several couples so far, and need to be taken care of. All of the couples here are on the cliffs, where the huntail can't reach. But the lower areas are off limits right now," Glamia says.

"Don't worry. We have this handled," Xya says.

"Great, I'll just leave it to you two, then," Glamia says. She walks to one of the cliffs. Well then, that was awkward. Hopefully we won't have to talk to her much again.

"So what's the plan, Jiro?" Xya asks. Well, I wasn't expecting to have to come up with a plan so quickly. What to do...

"Well, the first thing we need to do is lure the huntail to where we are... Are you good at grabbing fast-moving objects?" I ask.

"Yes, I am. So the plan is that we lure him to us to we can battle him?" Xya asks.

"No, we will hardly be doing anything. The plan is to remove him from the water and put him on dry land, where he can't fight as well," I say. "So we just need to move over there are lure him." We move right next to the water.

"So how do we lure him here?" Xya asks.

"I hadn't really figured that part out yet," I say.

"I have an idea. Hey! Huntail-pokemon-thing! We think you're very fat! And ugly!"

"I don't really think that's going to-" Suddenly, the huntail jumps out of the water. Xya grabs his tail and throws him behind us. She dashes to him and slams into him with her elbow. Well, I guess I was mistaken.

"Ack," the huntail says. Xya stands up. "W-what are you going to do with me?"

"I want to know why," I say.

"Why what?" The huntail asks.

"Why did you attack those couples?" I ask.

"I just... I was jealous. Those couples... I've never been loved," the huntail says. Xya leans down and kisses him on the cheek.

"You can't just give up because your luck's gotten sour," Xya says.

"I... I'm so sorry. I... I hurt them, didn't I? Those pokemon. I wasn't thinking about it, but I did. They aren't bad pokemon. They just have something I don't... I'll never do anything like this again, I promise!" the huntail says.

"What do you think, Jiro? Should we let him slide?" Xya asks. Let's see. If he already attacked couples because of his own love life, then he's probably not very stable emotionally. It's not smart to let him go._ 'Do you think you're better than I am, Jiro? Do you think that, because you have not been pushed to crime, you are superior?' _The memories of Crysantha come back. Not all criminals are horrible villains. Some of them are just pushed to it... Maybe this huntail isn't really such a bad pokemon... I don't know...

"It's up to you, I could go either way," I say.

"Hm... Then let's find somewhere else to release our huntail friend, shall we?" Xya says.

"You... You're not going to arrest me?" The huntail asks.

"No, we're not. You deserve a second chance," Xya says. She lifts the huntail over her shoulder, and we leave.

After we find a nice pond to put him in, and say our goodbyes and return to the guild.

It's not an expedition, but this was fun. It's not bad, this whole mercy thing. I shouldn't make a habit of it, but it's nice not to be the bringer of pain, but the forgiver, for once.


	32. Chapter 12: Guardian Angel

"Jiro, it's time to get up," Avia says. Ugh... I hate having to get up. "Come on, Jiro, it's time to go." But I'm so tired. Just a little longer. This bed is so comfy. "Jiro, the guild is on fire!" I jump up, causing Avia to laugh.

"So I take it there's no fire?" I say.

"Sorry about that. I wasn't sure how else to wake you," Avia says.

"It's fine. So how did everything go with Mino?" I ask.

"Well. But he's certainly an odd one. How did things go with Xya?" Avia asks. She seems more authentically happy than she did yesterday. I'm glad.

"We made a pretty decent team." With that, we walk to the guild lobby where the everyone else is. After the morning cheers, Chatot starts talking.

"I was pleased to hear of the successes of all of the teams. Today will be your second and last day in these pairings. Once again, I've already selected missions for you," Chatot says. He hands one member of each group a paper. Xya gets the paper, so I walk over to her. I see her skim the paper. She holds it in one hand, and clenches her fist in the other.

"What'd we get?" I ask.

"Flo," Xya says.

"Flow? As in how water flows? Care to be more specific?" I ask.

"No. A fighter. An old friend of mine, actually. She left one day seeking power... And now here she is. I'm going to defeat her!" Xya says.

"Okay. So is there anything I should know about Flo before we go?"

"Yes. Just stay out of the fight. It's my fight, my enemy. Please, Jiro." She really wants this. I don't see why I shouldn't let her. Even if she loses, I'll have had time to analyze the opponent's strengths and weaknesses.

"Sure. If you want me to stay out of it, I will."

"Thank you! You're the best partner ever!"

"So what is Flo doing, anyway?"

"She attacked ten or so innocent pokemon, according to this paper. We should hurry, that number is only going to increase."

And so we rush to the town where Flo was last sighted, Newleaf town.

A mienfoo blocks the town gate.

"That's Flo," Xya says.

"Ah. Xya, glad to see you! Though I suppose you haven't come for a cup of tea and to remember the old times, have you? No, I suppose you're here to stop me. Before we do battle, though, I'm dying to know who the eevee is. Is he your student?" Flo asks. Xya doesn't answer, she charges and Flo and attempts to punch her. Flo moves her body to avoid the punch. "Not one for talking today, are you? Come now, I only wanted an innocent conversation." Xya tries to punch Flo again, but Flo once again dodges it with ease. "Well then, if you won't answer. Hello! Eevee! What is your relation to this tyrogue?" I say nothing. "Really, no response?" Flo says, while dodging another punch.

"I've been told to stay out of this. Just pretend I'm not here," I say.

"What a silent group. It's a shame. I had wanted to talk a little before injuring a childhood friend. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't have expected anything else from Xya's boyfriend," Flo says. It's obvious she's trying to get a reaction, so I don't give her one. Xya doesn't react, either. She just throws another punch at Flo, which is dodged with ease. Flo kicks Xya's body, putting her a foot or so off of the air. Then she punches her back down to the ground. Xya twists around while on the ground and tries to kick Flo's face, but Flo blocks the attack with her arms. Xya gets up and backs away from Flo. "What will you do now? Will you call your boyfriend to attack me? Do it, I dare you."

"Stance C! Rapid pain!" Xya yells. She charges at Flo again, this time with different movement. It's faster, but there's something different about her posture, too. She throws a punch at Flo, who dodges it, and then continues to launch punch after punch at Flo. Each punch is dodged or blocked, but Xya doesn't stop.

After a few minutes of failed punches, Flo grabs Xya's hands and twists them. I hear a painful sounding cracking noise. Flo attempts to kick Xya, but Xya ducks under the kick and punches Flo into the wall that's connected to the town's gates. She dashes to where Flo hit the wall, and unleashes a barrage of punches, hitting Flo into the wall every time she's about to fall. After ten or so good punches, Flo jumps over Xya and runs toward me. Xya runs after her.

Flo reaches out her arms to grab me, I try to bite her, but I miss her, and she grabs me. She holds a hand against my neck.

"Make a move, and the eevee gets it," Flo says. Xya stops moving toward us. "Don't get me wrong, I can take you on alone, Xya. But this eevee annoys me. He's been watching my moves since the beginning, and I think he's beginning to figure then out. I can't let that happen, can I?" Flo says. I would struggle, but I worry about what Flo would do to me if I try. "But after I kill him, I can take you down."

"Kill him? No! Don't do that! He's never done anything to you!" Xya yells.

"It's too late for that," Flo says. She moves the hand that isn't holding me back, readying it to hit me in the neck. "Pressure point A. The untimely demise." Before Flo can move her hand, it's hit with an ice beam. I look in the direction of the ice beam, but I don't see anyone there. Who would have done that? It's the same as the time with that shadow ball, there's someone looking out for me... It's like I have a guardian angel. One who's very shy.

I break free from Flo's grasp and bite her leg, she falls to the ground.

"What was that? That ice beam... There was three of you... All along. How stupid of me not to see that coming," Flo says. Xya runs over and puts Flo in a headlock.

"Who fired that ice beam?" Xya asks.

"I don't really know. But this has happened before. It's kinda like I have a guardian angel," I say.

"Well, whoever that was, I am grateful to him or her. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you, Jiro," Xya says.

"It's fine, really. As a rescue team member, I should know how to look after myself," I say.

"Oh, how touching," Flo says.

"Shut it, you," Xya says. She tightens her grip on Flo.

And then we go back to the guild and deliver Flo to Magnezone.

But who was it who saved me? It's been twice now. And this time I would certainly have died if it weren't for my 'guardian angel'. Who would follow me around to make sure I'm okay? And why doesn't he or she want me to know about him or her?


	33. Chapter 13: Midnight's Message

I wake up before Avia. It must not be day yet. Somehow it's pleasant to wake up so early. I look at her in her sleeping state. She looks so peaceful. I watch her for a bit, her rhytmic breathing is calming. I look out the window, but instead of seeing the horizon, I see a blitzle looking at me and smiling. Was she watching me sleep? Well that's creepy.

"Hey, can you hear me?" She asks. I nod. "Good. Meet me outside the guild, okay?" I nod again.

So I sneak out of the guild, being careful not to wake up anyone.

Once I'm out, I meet up with the Blitzle.

"So why were you watching me sleep?" I ask.

"What? Oh, no! I was waiting for you to wake up! I need your help!" The blitzle says.

"What do you need help with?" I ask.

"My best friend's lost in a mystery dungeon. You need to save him! Please!" The blitzle says.

"Sure, just let me wake up my partner."

"Okay. Just meet me out here when you're done."

I run to Avia. Once I reach her, I shake her.

"Avia! We've got a mission to do!" I yell. Avia doesn't move. "Avia! We have to save a random blitzle's best friend!" Avia slowly gets up.

"Jiro? What time is it?" She asks.

"Way too early. But we don't have time for that! We have saving to do!" I say.

"Right! Let's do it!" Avia says.

We race out of the guild and to where the blitzle is waiting for us.

"That was quick. So are you ready to go?" The blitzle asks.

"Yeah, let's do this!" Avia says with a smile. Well someone's feeling better. Maybe you really did have something to learn from Mino. Though Arceus knows how someone so emotionless could make you happier.

"Then follow me," the blitzle says.

She leads us down the path away from the town.

"So who are you, anyway? And how did you get into this situation?" Avia asks.

"My name is Biavea. My best friend wanted to get me a nice present for my birthday. So he... He went to get a rhythm stone. I've always liked music, you see. The stone produces a sound unlike any instrument when used properly. He went to get one for me... But he... he never came back. It's been a day now. Something must be wrong," the blitzle says.

"So where did he go?" I ask.

"To the cave of Ice and Fire," Biavea says.

"Oh dear. Well this may not end well. Did he go into the fire part, or the ice part?" Avia asks.

"Ice," Biavea replies.

"And how far in are these stones supposed to be?" Avia asks.

"Not very. That's why I got so worried when he didn't come back," Biavea says.

"Phew," Avia says.

"What's so bad about being farther in?" I ask.

"The guardians of the treasures of fire and ice. To defeat either one of them would take at least a B+ rank team. And that's if you can just fight one on its own. To fight both of them, alongside one another... You'd have to have a death wish," Avia says.

"Oh dear! Is it really that bad? I should never have let him go!" Biavea says.

"It's okay. We'll save him. As long as he's not too far it, it shouldn't be too hard," Avia says.

"Good. Thank you. Oh, by the way. My friend is a zigzagoon. You'll probably need to know that to find him," Biavea says.

Eventually, we reach the dungeon.

"I wish I could help, but I'd just drag you down," Biavea says.

"It's okay. Let's do this, Jiro!" Avia says. We walk into the ice dungeon.

The dungeon is cold, and full of ice. Luckily, the ground itself isn't too bad. I can walk without slipping, which is the most important thing.

"Br... I'm cold. What about you, Jiro, are you cold?" Avia asks.

"Yeah, a little," I say. Avia moves closer to me, so that our bodies are almost touching.

"For warmth," she says. I nod. After a few minutes of wandering around the cave, we find a strange kirlia. Her legs and hair aren't green, like Cyria's, they're light blue, almost like the ice. And her horns are green. With her is a zigzagoon. This must be the pokemon we've been sent to rescue. But who is this kirlia? She's stroking the zigzagoon's head reassuringly. Maybe this kirlia saved him. It seems to make sense. Why else would she be stroking his head.

Avia and I walk over to the zigzagoon, we get half-way before the kirlia begins to talk.

"Stop. Don't come any closer. Unless... Eevee, what is your name?" the kirlia asks.

"My name is Jiro," I say.

"Perfect. It took you longer than I had expected. I assume you're here to take this zigzagoon?" the kirlia asks.

"Yes. Back to his friend," I say.

"Really? She sent for help? She's the best," the zigzagoon says.

"Good. I just have a small message for you, if you'd take the time to listen. The message is from a friend of mine named Midnight. It is as follows: 'I'm sorry I can't talk to you in person, Jiro. I'm... I'm wrapped up in some complex work right now. But I just wanted to warn you. There is another guild who you'll probably meet soon. Inside of that guild, though there are great friends, there is also a great evil. What this pokemon aims to do, I do not know. I wish I could give you more information... Ugh, I feel so useless. When you meet the members of this guild, you must be wary. If not for your own sake, then for mine, and for the sake of the rest of the world. Beware even the most innocent, for they are often the ones trying to hide something. There is one confirmed friend, though. His name is Slasher. If you find yourself in need of help, go to him. He has already been informed of your situation. And please, be careful. I don't want you to die, you've already come so close what, twice now? Please, become stronger. You'll need all of the strength you can get. I hope we get to meet, someday. And please, be...' Oh, we should skip over that part," the kirlia says. Who is this 'Midnight'? Whoever he or she is, he or she knows much about me... Maybe this pokemon is my guardian angel? There are so many questions.

"What can you tell me about Midnight?" I ask.

"Only that she's very kind, and really did want to meet you. She would be mad at me if I gave you any more information," the kirlia says.

"What's your relation to her?" I ask.

"I told you already, we're friends. That's all I can tell you," the kirlia says.

"Can I at least hear your name?" I ask.

"No."

"What about the rest of the message. Can you tell me that?"

"She wasn't going to say anything important. Just my name. And I don't want you to know that."

"But isn't it important that I receive all of the message?"

"Not at all. She's my friend, I know what's important, and retain the right to withhold useless information as her messenger."

"Jiro, what's going on? Who is this? And who is Midnight?" Avia asks.

"The only thing I know that you don't is that my life was saved yesterday, and when that wooper attacked us. And I'm guessing that this Midnight pokemon was behind it. Am I right?" I ask the kirlia.

"I can't confirm or deny anything," the kirlia says.

"So all you can tell us about Midnight is her name?" Avia asks. The kirlia sighs.

"Yes, that's all I can tell you. I am bound by honor and word. So please, stop asking for answers, I can't give them you. Just take the zigzagoon and go, okay? You'll meet Midnight eventually, I'm sure of it," the kirlia says. I sigh. "With my message delivered, I'm done." And with that, the kirlia disappears.

"Well that was awkward," the zigzagoon says.

"Yeah, kinda. But let's get you back to Biavea," I say.

"Yeah. Thanks for this, by the way," the zigzagoon says.

"It's okay. It's not like we even did much," I say.

"Maybe not, but you did come to help. And you probably woke up before the sun to come and help me. That means much to me. That said, let's get out of here. It's so cold!" the zigzagoon says.

So we lead him out of the dungeon; to where Biavea is waiting.

"You're okay!" Biavea says, nuzzling the zigzagoon.

"I'm so sorry. I must have ruined your birthday, huh?" the zigzagoon asks.

"Don't worry about something like that! I'll have tons of birthdays, but I only have one best friend. Don't do anything stupid ever again!" Biabea says.

"We'll just leave you two be," Avia says.

"Okay. I'll send the reward to the guild later. Thank you for everything, really," Biavea says.

"Don't worry about a reward, if you're going to thank anyone... Well, thank Midnight's kirlia friend. She's the one who actually found your friend," Avia says.

"Still, I'll be sending something. It's only fair. Waking you two up so early," Biavea says.

"Do what pleases you," I say.

And then we left.

Who is this Midnight? And why has she taken such an interest in me? And that other guild... Who is this evil pokemon? Should I even believe Midnight about all of this?

Ugh. I don't know. This is so confusing. I guess all I can do is wait for more answers. Hopefully they come soon.


	34. Chapter 14 part 1: A Perfect Request

I feel myself being shaken. Something important must be going on. Maybe the guild really is on fire. That wouldn't be fun. I don't feel much abnormal heat, so it's probably not that.

Then what? I guess I should get up and see. But that means I would have to get up. Ugh...

I slowly stand up, and look Avia, who was shaking me. And Xya's in our room too. What's going on?

"Jiro! We've got to go! I'll explain on the way!" Avia says. She leads me out of the guild, and we walk out of town.

"Where are we going?" I ask groggily.

"Tumbletore mountain," Xya says.

"Why?" I ask.

"You're still pretty tired, aren't you?" Avia asks.

"Not tired, just lethargic. I'll be back to normal soon. So why are we going to Tumbletore mountain?" I ask.

"Because someone out there specifically requested us to help them! We're going on an expedition! We're going on a treasure hunt!" Avia says. I can almost see pure joy in her eyes.

"So, no offense, but why is Xya here if we were specifically requested?" I ask.

"I'm Cyria's replacement. We work well together, so Chatot sent me to come with you," Xya says.

"So why does everyone know about this but me?" I ask.

"We didn't want to wake you," Avia says. Well that doesn't really make much sense, they wake me up for everything else... But whatever.

"So what's the mission?" I ask.

"Well, we were asked to help find the treasure hidden in the caves. We don't really know much else. But they said that they needed your talents specifically, Jiro. It looks like someone has taken notice of how smart you are!" Avia says. How would someone hear about me? I guess word does spread, but still. I didn't think I was really anything worth noting. Surely other rescue teams have better strategists. What would they need me for that no one else could do? I don't get it... What could I possibly do so well?

"So do we know anything about the client?" I ask.

"Only that she's going to meet us in one of the caves. I looked through the request several times, she never said what type of pokemon she was. I guess we'll know when we see her. I don't think there's that many pokemon in the caves, there's no real reason for them to be there," Avia says.

"Does this seem a little shady to anyone else?" I ask.

"What do you mean?" Xya asks.

"I don't know. Maybe I'm thinking into this a little too much, but doesn't it sound odd? They said they would particularly need me, but I don't think I can do anything that another strategist couldn't do," I say.

"You're underestimating yourself," Xya says.

"You really think so? Chances are, what they need me for is to get us around traps. There are surely many strategists who could maneuver us around traps better. So why me?" I ask.

"Whoever it is probably heard about you somewhere. Just relax, will you? What would they even want with you?" I guess that's a good point. Unless they're trying to kill me because I'm... Whatever the heck I am. I guess there's not much I can do but hope this isn't a trap.

"You're just over-analyzing it. Nothing bad's going to happen. You've proven yourself time and time again to be a genius, and this girl seems to have noticed. That's all," Avia says.

Maybe she's right. Yeah, she probably is. This is just another mission, nothing to freak out about. The only difference is that this time we were specifically requested.

"So how long does it take to get to this Tumbletore mountain, anyways?" I ask.

"It's a two day journey," Avia says.

"So we're just going to be walking all day?" I ask.

"Pretty much," Xya says.

And then we heard the scream. I looked around for the source, finding it to be a turtwig being stabbed by a farfetch'd. Avia shoots fire at the farfetch'd, causing him to jump away from to turwig, to whom we rush over to. He looks like he's not in a good state, but he should be fine as long as he's not attacked again.

"How could you attack him?" Avia yells at the farfetch'd. Maybe Avia knows this turtwig. She certainly does seem worked up about this farfetch'd's attacking him. Or maybe I just don't care enough.

"I don't have to answer to the likes of you," the farfetch'd says. So if there's a fight about to go down, that means Midnight should probably be nearby. I look around, but don't see her. Where are you, Midnight? There's not many places to hide around here. I wish I could go look for her, but I have to stay here with the team.

"Gram, are you okay?" Avia asks.

"Yes... I'm fine. Now that I get to see your face one more time... But smile, dearest, you look so much better that way," the turtwig, who must be Gram, says weakly. Avia rolls her eyes.

"Well, someone's being over-dramatic," Avia says.

"Come on, I can't even get a smile?" Gram says. Avia laughs a little, causing her signature smile. "There we go." Gram stands up. Funny, he had seemed to be in a decent amount of pain a few seconds ago, but now he looks completely fine.

"So who gets to fight this guy?" Xya asks.

"We need to stay sharp for our own mission. But we can't just leave poor, defenseless Gram all on his own," Avia says.

"Yeah, the same poor, defenseless guy who beat you easily," Gram says.

"Two years ago. I'm much stronger now. But we don't have time to argue about this, we have somewhere to be," Avia says.

"Then I'll take care of him," Xya says. She charges at the farfetch'd. He blocks her first punch with his leek, but he has to use both of his wings to block her power. Xya uses the opportunity to kick him just under where he is blocking her punch, causing him to fly backwards. She rushes at him and grabs the leek, using it to pull him towards her. She smashes his face with her elbow, and ends up with the leek in her hands. The farfetch'd flies back, eventually hitting the ground. When he gets up, he looks at his wings in a panicked manner. Farfetch'd can't live without their leeks. It was a cruel tactic, but probably the most effective one could use. Especially because that's his main weapon. Xya tosses to leek to me, and I catch with with my mouth. It has a slightly anise taste. It actually tastes kinda good.

She's simulating the same situation as the fight with Flo. She's making it so that the farfetch'd has more reason to attack me than to attack her. She wants to prove to herself that she can protect me this time. Of course, this opponent doesn't seem to be as tough as Flo was, but if this is what she feels like she needs to do, then I'll support her. But I wish she'd realize that I don't need her to protect me.

The farfetch'd charges, obviously trying to go around her, and to me. Xya attempts to trip him, but he jumps over her leg, putting himself right in the path of Xya's next kick. Xya follows up her kick by rushing at him and kicking his chest. His eyes grow wide, and then go back to normal. But he's not moving. He must be unconscious.

"We'll leave the rest to you, Gram," Avia says. Gram stares at Xya with his mouth gaping open.

"She's good. And pretty hot, too. I don't suppose you could hook me up?" Gram asks.

"No. You've got a farfetch'd to take care of, and we've got a mission to do. But we really have to catch up later. And battle, so I can show you how far I've come," Avia says. I throw (as well as I can) the leek to Gram. It lands on the ground near him. With that, Avia, Xya and I head for the cave.

* * *

After two days of walking, we finally reach the cave. It's is dark, and chilling wind seems to come from inside. Huh. How odd. I didn't think wind would come from inside of a cave. Not that I really know much about wind.


	35. Chapter 14 part 2: Thrice and Counting

We enter the cave to find a winding path of mirrors. Not natural mirrors, though, they were obviously purchased somewhere. And it looks like this could be a maze. Well this should be fun. I look back, only to see that our way out is completely black. I can't see the outside of the cave. This does not seem like a good sign.

"Well hello. Welcome to your grave. Make yourselves comfortable, this is going to hurt... excruciatingly." Suddenly, a tepig appears in every mirror. As if she's being reflected by every single one. What's going on? Oh Arceus, this is that girl who was with Chiara. Ebony, I think her name was?

"What's going on? Why would you want to kill us?" Avia asks.

"Because of him," all of the Ebonys reply at the same time.

"Because of whom?" Xya asks.

"Jiro. Yes, you must die. You too, vulpix. You're one of them," Ebony says. Well then, it really was a mistake to leave her... And now, because of me, she's here, and in a position at which she can kill us. I need to get Avia and Xya out of here. I have a feeling this isn't just simply Ebony I'm dealing with.

"You just want me," I say. "Keep them out of this. Xya, Avia, leave us. I can handle her on my own, don't worry."

"I'm confused. What's going on?" Avia asks.

"I'm the reason someone she holds dear is imprisoned, now she wants revenge," I say.

"We will not let her hurt you! We are a team, and a team does not leave one member in when he is in danger," Xya says.

"Well put, Xya!" Avia adds.

"And this is why these two must die. Their undying devotion... I can't let that stand!" the Ebonys say. They shoot fire at us from their nostrils, it hits Avia and Xya, but not me, for some reason. They both fly back. How did this fire hurt them? There's no way the real Ebony shot all of that fire. It looked like it came out of every mirror. But if it wasn't her, then who did? I feel two cold hands on my back feet, they pull me towards a mirror. I look behind me, and see a haunter dragging me. I try to struggle, but it doesn't work. His grip is unbreakable. He moves through the mirror, and drags me after him. I close my eyes as I move through the mirror, expecting it to shatter, but it doesn't. I move completely through it, and into a small cage. I can see through the mirror, though. Which strikes me as odd, being that I'm on the other side of it.

"Jiro!" Avia shouts. Just get out of here, Avia. If you don't, you're only going to be killed with me. I hear a noise behind me, and look to see Ebony. This does not bode well.

"I suppose you think I'm going to kill you," Ebony says.

"Yeah... Aren't you?" I ask.

"I... I don't understand it. I should hate you, shouldn't I? You're the reason my mentor's in jail. You're part of the system of justice that's flawed so much that it does much more harm than good. But even so, I don't hate you. Quite the opposite, really. I want you to stay here with me forever," Ebony says. Is this the same hot-headed girl I met with Chiara? She seems to calm, and yet. What she's saying, it makes no sense.

"Are you claiming to love me?"

"Yes, it doesn't make sense, but I know I do. And I know you feel the same way. You did, after all, leave me alone when you took Chiara." What? That was mercy, not love! And maybe a little apathy, but whatever.

"I left you out of mercy. I wasn't sent to capture you, so why bother?"

"Because, like Chiara, I'm a criminal." She sighs. "I guess denial is the first stage... But just wait, you will love me."

"I don't think love works like that."

"And what do you know of it?" I look back at Avia and Xya. The mirror Ebonys have hit both of them many times. I can see several large burns on each of them from here. What do I do? Ebony won't let me escape, obviously, but I need to help them. There has to be something! Come on, think! I'm really helpless, here. I need some kind of change in conditions, or to manipulate Ebony. Or... I guess there's always the mysterious Midnight. But if she comes into a place with so many mirrors, I'm bound to see her. That wouldn't stop her from saving me, would it? "You've been awfully quiet."

"You're right, I don't really know that much about love." Suddenly, a burst of water surges into the cave, breaking many of the mirrors. I find myself being pulled through the cage and mirror again by some kind of... mouth. Ew. I don't really understand what's going on until we're outside of the cave. Avia, Xya, an oshawott, and whatever's dragging me move along a path away from the cave. The mouth lets me go, and I run with them. I look next to me, and see a shuppet. Those mirrors illusions, they must have been run by ghost pokemon, then. It makes sense, ghost pokemon seem to move through them easily, and they could create the illusion of having multiple Ebonys. Plus, many ghost pokemon can use fire.

But more importantly, who are these two? I don't know either of them, but they seem to have saved us. Maybe they're a rescue team? Well, whoever they are, I'm thankful to them. They saved us from Ebony in her odd state. Something's wrong with her, it doesn't make sense. No one just falls in love with someone who imprisons their loved ones. There's no sicko in the world who would find that attractive. So why did Ebony seem to think so?

"I suppose we should explain, huh?" The oshawott says as we run. I look back, and see that there are ghosts chasing us, wonderful. "My name's Oshal, and this is my partner, Ruby. We were hired to come help you out. Not that I mind taking something Ebony wants away from her."

"You must dislike her, then," Xya says.

"Yeah, she did kill me, after all. I don't like it when someone kills me," Oshal says.

"You were dead?" Avia asks.

"Technically he was. He didn't have a heartbeat or anything. Luckily, I'm an expert on this sort of thing. He wasn't too far gone. So I brought him back. You'd be surprised how easy it is to make a heart beat again if it's only been half a minute," Ruby says.

"That's amazing! So you can bring the dead back to life!" I exclaim.

"Well, mostly. There are a few... complications. I had to alter Oshal's mental wiring a bit, and he's still not fully alive, he's completely tethered to me. If I die, he dies as well. But let's not get into that. We're here to get you to safety, not to chit-chat about raising the dead."

"We're going to have to fight her eventually. She seems too determined to just give up," I say.

"Don't worry. We've already got that covered. The pokemon who's paying us is going to send someone to take care of her. Actually, the backup should be there right now," Oshal says. I look back again, there aren't any ghosts chasing after us. The backup must have caused them all to need to go back and fight, which means that our backup is tough.

"So who hired you, anyway? Are you two a rescue team?" Avia asks.

"No, we're more like temporary mercenaries. As for who hired us, I'm not entirely positive. She goes by Midnight, but we've never met her. She always uses a kirlia as a mediator. Whoever this Midnight is, she's an odd one," Ruby says.

"Tell me about it," Oshal says.

"We should be good here. You two continue on, we're going to stay around here," Ruby says.

"Uh, sure. Thanks for everything!" Avia says as we run past the now stopped Ruby and Oshal.

None of this makes any sense. Arg, I really want to meet this 'Midnight' girl who keeps saving me. I know that kirlia said that we'd meet eventually, but after saving me three times, I want to be able to see her in person at least once. But I guess I should be grateful. After all, she did just save me again. Three times so far, and probably many more to come... I feel so useless, I can't even fight my own fights anymore.

So after spending two whole days trying to get here, I get saved, and now I have to spend two more days walking back. Sounds like fun... Because everyone knows that two days of walking is the most enjoyable thing one can possibly do.


	36. Chapter 15 part 1: Sleepover?

**There have been some questions about my update schedule, so I figure it's time to clarify. My loose update time is Saturday night, sometimes Sunday. But sometimes I just update randomly. Just 'cause.**

"Jiro... Jiro, come on, everyone else has already left for their missions... Come on..." I faintly hear Avia's voice say. And then there are whispers. "Um. Okay, if you say so." I feel something warm and moist on my face and open my eyes. It's a tongue. I jump up, startled to find a tongue on my face. Avia and Xya laugh. "I guess you were right!"

"Wait, what's going on? Why was there a tongue on my face?" I ask. Avia giggles.

"We were just experimenting with new ways to wake you up. But seriously, we do need to get moving, we can discuss this on the road," Avia says. So we walk outside of the guild, and to the road.

"So what's our grand adventure for today?" I ask.

"We're guarding the slumber party of a rich pokemon," Avia says.

"Is that what rescue teams do? That sounds more like bodyguard stuff than rescue team stuff," I say.

"Yes, none of us are thrilled about it. But Chatot must have a reason. I would have asked him about it, had he been around today," Xya says.

"Where is he?" I ask.

"We have no idea. When I woke up, the mission was on the floor next to me. I couldn't find Chatot in the building at all. But there was a note on the guildmaster's room's door from him saying he was out for the day," Avia explains.

"So how far away is the place we need to get to?" I ask.

"We should arrive there in the evening," Xya says.

"But... but it's morning right now," I say.

"Yes, this will involve more than our fair share of walking," Avia says.

"Darn," I say.

Eventually, we arrive in a fairly large city. There are hundreds of buildings, and tons of pokemon walking around. We continue walking until we reach a small cottage near the edge of town. Avia knocks on the door.

"Who is doing the knocking of ze door?" A female voice with an odd accent says.

"My name is Avia. I'm part of the rescue team you requested," Avia says.

"Is your teammate here too?" The voice says, this time without the accent.

"Yes, both of them," Avia says.

"Perfect!" The voice exclaims. The door opens to reveal a female sentret. Avia and Xya walk in the door ahead of me, the sentret stops me before I can walk in. "I am terribly sorry. Boys are strictly forbidden at this slumber party. You can come by tomorrow morning to pick up your friends."

"Wait, Jiro can't come in?" Avia asks. This is stupid. I'm assigned to a mission I can't even do. What's the point of this? Well, whatever. I should try to make Avia okay with this, at least. It is still the mission we were assigned, after all. And I'm interested to explore this city some more.

"It's fine. I'll just find some place to goof around. I'll be here tomorrow morning," I say.

"Are you sure?" Avia asks.

"Yeah, it's all good," I say, flashing Avia a fake smile.

"Alright, I guess I'll see you tomorrow," Avia says.

"See you then," I say. And then the door closes in my face. Such great manners this sentret has. Not even closing the door slowly, as to avoid hitting my face. What a lovely gal.

So I guess it's time to explore the city. So where should I start? Wandering around sounds nice. Maybe I'll find something if I get lost...

And then I feel it. One little drop of rain. Well, there goes all of the fun of exploring. Unless the it's not going to start pouring.

And then there are two more drops. Five. Ten. Twenty. Too many to count. A light sprinkle turned – in one minute – to a full-on downpour. Well then, this isn't fun anymore. I want shelter. I don't like the rain! Where am I supposed to find shelter? I guess maybe if I walk around for long enough I can find a public place to stay until the rain stops.

The streets which were once full of pokemon are now almost void of life. There are still a few left outside, but all of them have a place they are trying to get to. All of them have somewhere they can be.

And then there's me. Aimlessly drifting in a sea of rain. Just hoping that I'll find drift to a beach and be able to be climb onto dry land once again.

After ten minutes or so of walking, I hear someone calling out to me.

"Hey!" The voice says. I look around and see a female eevee in the door of a house. "What are you doing out in the rain? You can stay with us, if you'd like." So I walk into the house of a random stranger. Because that's always the best thing to do in a big city... Well, I may have just made a horrible decision.

The building's walls are colored light orange, but have blue and yellow spots of paint on them. Also in the room are two girls more girls, a litwik and a charmander.

"So what's your name?" The eevee asks.

"I'm Jiro, and you?"

"You can call me Kirie," the eevvee says. Kirie sounds almost like a pet-name. Like something a guy would call his best female friend or something... Well, she is providing me with shelter, so there's certainly no reason to insult her given name.

"And I'm Feona," the charmander says. The litwik looks at me, almost like she's studying me. Feona nudges her with her left arm. The litwik sighs.

"My name is Ilias," she says.

"So why were you out in the rain, anyway?" Kirie asks.

"I'm part of a rescue team, but our mission didn't require me. So I was going to explore the city," I say.

"Wait! Did you say rescue team?" Kirie asks, excitedly.

"Rescue team! No way! Seriously?" Feona adds.

"Um... Yeah, I'm part of a rescue team from the Wigglytuff guild," I say. Feona runs over to me, dragging Ilias behind her.

"So you go on adventures and stuff, then. Right?"Kirie asks.

"Yeah, I guess," I say.

"This is amazing! We're training to be a rescue team. And here you are, already a rescue team member. It's like fate! Thank you Arceus!" Kirie says. She really seems to hold rescue team members in pretty high regard. It's flattering.

"Could you help us train? I mean, you're not busy or anything, and you are kinda stuck here for a while," Feona says. She makes a good point. I have nothing better to do, so I may as well.

"Sure," I say.


	37. Chapter 15 part 2: Traps

"Yes!" Kirie says. She jumps up and down with joy. "So what should we do first?"

"What have you been doing already?" I ask.

"Running, hiking, strategizing, you name it," Feona says.

"Have you tried going on an exploring? There's some things you can only learn out in the field," I say.

"Yeah, let's do it!" Kirie says.

"You do realize that it's raining, right? And what about Feona? If her tail's flame goes out, she dies, remember?" Ilias points out.

"Oh please. I'm not a kid anymore, my flame isn't going to go out just because of some rain," Feona says.

"Are you sure? It's a torrential downpour out there," Ilias says.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine," Feona says.

"Alright, but be sure to tell me if your fire starts to do down. I don't want you to die on us, you hear?"

"Yes, mother." The sarcasm in her voice is obvious. I should be careful, despite her confidence that she'll be fine. Maybe if we go to the forest, there should be tree cover there.

"So where are we going?" Kirie asks. She's still jumping up and down a bit. She must be excited.

"I was thinking the forest. I'm pretty sure there's one around here," I say.

"Yep, there is. Though most pokemon here don't go there. Too dirty for them. And too dangerous," Kirie says.

"Perfect. Then that's where we're going," I say.

"Yes! Forest adventure!" Kirie says.

It takes us ten minutes to get to the forest, the rain is still coming down fast, but the girls' flames seem fine. And their spirits remain high.

When we reach the forest, the first thing I notice is a tripwire in the entrance. Upon further inspection, I notice that there are tripwires scattered all over the path. Some on the ground, some at the level of my head, some higher.

"Stop," I tell the girls, "do you see anything wrong with the path?"

"There's tripwires everywhere. Someone wants to keep us out," Ilias says.

"Or keep someone in," Feona says.

"So what do we do?" Kirie asks.

"The first step is to evaluate what kind of traps these are. Kirie, please use swift on the wire closest to us," Ilias says. Kirie launches a star shaped form of energy from her mouth, hitting the wire. I've got to learn how to do that. At first it looks like nothing's going to happen, but eventually five arrows tipped with a purple liquid launch and hit trees near the location of the tripwire. I'm willing to bet the purple liquid is poison.

"What do we do now?" Kirie asks.

"There's no way in. The whole forest is probably covered in traps, if this path is," Ilias says. If someone went through all of the trouble of rigging the entire forest, they must have had a reason. There must be a way for this pokemon to get quick access to the forest, something most pokemon wouldn't think of. This could be a ghost pokemon we're dealing with, but I don't think so. Which means there must be a way in. So if the forest at ground level is blocked, and none of us can go above, the answer must be to go below. There must be some kind of trap door somewhere. I look around, eventually finding an odd looking patch of grass outside of the forest. I walk over to it, and tap it with my leg. It feels like paper. I swipe it, and the paper moves away to reveal a trapdoor. A large piece of paper painted to look like grass. Odd. Wouldn't the wind blow this away? Maybe it was stuck to something. Either way, that doesn't mater.

"If we can't go through, then we'll go under," I say.

"How did you know that was there?" Kirie says, her voice full of wonder.

"Deductive reasoning," I say.

"That's insane! Are all rescue team members this smart?" Feona asks. I blush.

"Some of us specialize in wit, and some of us specialize in other things. But everyone's good at something. As for me, figuring this kind of thing out is what I do. It makes up for my lack of strength," I say.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you if we get into a fight," Feona says. Having a newbie rescue team trainee protect me would be embarrassing, that's for sure.

"Thanks, but don't worry about that. Now come on, let's see what's through the trap door," I say.

I go though the trap door first. It's a dirt tunnel. It's large enough that it doesn't feel cramped, which is nice. But there isn't much light built in light. Luckily for me, both Feona and Ilias have flames, so we're able to see. We walk along the path of a good ten or so minutes before finding a door out, the path still goes past the door, though.

"What do you girls think, should we go through the door, or keep going?" I ask.

"Let's try the door!" Kirie says. So I open the door. It opens to a clearing in the forest. We all walk out and look around. There doesn't seem to be anything important here. Why would there be a point to stop off at unless there's something there? I look to my left and I see it. Arrows, tipped with the same poison as earlier, speeding towards me. There's no time to move, no time to react. But then an orange blur moves between me and the arrows. With a bit of fire on the back. Feona! No, no, not like this.

Several arrows sink into her body. The poison's probably in the process of killing her, we need to act fast. She falls to the ground, Kirie and Ilias run to her.

There must have been a tripwire attached to the door. And there are probably are more arrows coming. I look around. I can see a few tips of arrows, which seem to be aimed at the place where Kirie is now. They're bound to fire eventually. I run between the arrows and Kirie. Just as I arrive, they fire. Several arrows jab into me. I scream and fall to the ground.

"I only brought one antidotal herb," Ilias says.

"Wait, they're poisoned?" Kirie exclaims. This is my fault. I can't let them die because of it. I... I won't die. I can't die here. I'll live through this. I don't need the antidote. I'll be fine.

"Yes. It looks to be pretty severe, too. I'd give them an hour to live," Ilias says.

"Give it to Feona," I say.

"But what about you?" Kirie asks.

"Don't worry. Resisting poison is part of my training. Just give the antidote to Feona. I'll be fine," I say. Ilias places the herb in Feona's mouth. She reluctantly chews it.

But now there's the problem of this poison. I'm not actually resistant to poison. I can feel it acting upon me already. I'm getting dizzy. I try to move my legs, they feel like they're moving in slow-motion. I can't hold on to my consciousness for much longer... I don't want to die.

I don't want to die.

And then I'm unconscious.


	38. Chapter 15 part 3:Midnight and Kalik

I open my eyes to a cave. Another near-death experience, they're almost normal now. Just another day, just another almost-death. I stand up – with some difficulty, I was just hit by arrows a little while ago, and my body is still sore – and look around again. I see Kirie staring at me from a few feet away.

"You lied, you're not resistant to poison, you're more susceptible to poison than most pokemon. Do you think it's okay to lie to us like that? Is that what a good rescue team member does?" Kirie says. Gosh, she seems angry.

"Be quiet... He did what he thought was right at the time, and he risked his own life for mine. Can't we just be happy that he's okay?" Feona, who just appeared in my vision, says. I blink a few times, hoping to see better. Near the entrance of the cave, I see an eevee and a growlithe. There's something on the eevee's forehead, but I can't quite make it out.

"So he awakens. The c-" the growlithe (who is obviously a male) says before being interrupted by a swift kick by the eevee (who seems to be female). The growlithe laughs. "So you knew what I was going to say-"

"Before you even said it. You're still too slow, Kalik, if you're hoping to embarrass me in front of our guest, you're going to need to be much faster than that" the eevee says. I squint, trying to figure out what's on her forehead. She moves a little closer, and I can see it. A circle branded onto her forehead with the number nine inside. Darn it! Was number nine a bad number? I can't remember! I don't think so, but she could be dangerous. I need to play this cool.

"This is my sister, Midnight," Kirie says. Midnight! Is this the Midnight who saved my life? Why does she have a number? Have I been being saved by a former prisoner?

"So did you save me again, Midnight?" I ask. She looks from Kalik to me.

"Oh... Um, well, I guess. You really should be more careful. I just don't want to see you die uh, y-you know?" Midnight speaks quickly. I wonder if this is awkward for her, it certainly sounds like it is.

"So you're the famed Midnight. Thanks for saving my life, what, four times now? And don't worry, I don't exactly like dying, I'm going to be more careful from now on," I say.

"So where's Avia? You tell me all these stories about Jiro _and Avia_, and then Avia isn't even here," Kalik says.

"We've got more important things to worry about than-" Kalik tries to hit Midnight, but she dodges out of the way. "Still too slow." Avia...

"Is it morning?" I ask.

"Yeah, the sun rose a bit ago, why?" Kalik says.

"Avia's waiting for me. I need to get back to the city, and fast," I say.

"In your condition the only place you'll be is this cave," Illias chimes in.

"I can relay a message to her, if you need someone to do it," Feona says.

"I can have you back to the guild tomorrow at the earliest, the day after at the latest," Midnight says.

"Alright, I'll go tell them. Where are they, Jiro?" Feona asks.

"There's a cottage at the edge of town. Some stuck-up sentret lives there," I say.

"Oh... her. Alright, I'll be back in a flash," Feona says before running out the cave.

"I'll just go with her," Kalik says.

"Do and I'll tell Crystal about your secret," Midnight says.

"What secret?" Kalik says.

"The dolls," Midnight says.

"You know, now that I think about it, I really should stay here," Kalik says.

"Good growlithe! Who's a good growlithe? You are, yes you are!" Midnight says.

"Hey, that's not nice," Kalik says.

"Did I ever claim to be nice? No, no I didn't," Midnight says.

"Well in those rehearsal letters to Jiro-"

"Don't talk about those!"

"Who's a bad little Midnight? _You_ are, yes you are."

"Anyways, now that we're finally here, face to face, Jiro, do you have anything you want to ask me? I can only imagine that I've been pretty much a mystery to you until now," Midnight says.

"And you don't even know who I am because _someone_ didn't deem that to be important enough to write in her letter to Jiro," Kalik adds.

"Yeah, um, who are you?" I ask. Kalik smiles.

"The name's Kalik. I'm part of Midnight's team. I'm our public relations specialist, seeing as how Crystal and Midnight are as good at conversation as a stone is," Kalik says.

"So what's with the interest in me, anyways?" I ask.

"You're going to save us all. You know, prophecy and what-not. But we've got to make sure you're able to face you destiny, and part of that means that you need to be alive," Kalik says. Oh, no big deal, you're just going to have to save us all. No pressure or anything.

"Prophecy?" I ask.

"You'd better ask Minna about that one," Kalik says.

"Oh yes, Minna. I've heard about her, but I haven't seen her yet," I say.

"I see... Listen to me, everything you've heard about Minna is a lie. There's nothing in the plans to tell you about her yet. If you've heard about her... Assume whoever told you is an enemy, it's the only safe bet," Midnight says.

"So your partner, is she nice?" Kalik asks.

"Yes, quite. Why do you ask?" I ask.

"Just curious. Want to see what kind of company you keep. And I've been told you hang out with a Kirlia, too?" Kalik says.

"You know, saving my life is nice and all, but have you been stalking me?" I ask.

"Better safe than sorry. But no, not everywhere. Just some places..." Midnight trails off.

"Well that's a little creepy," I say.

"You think that's creepy. You should check out her notebook. She took seven pages of notes on your personality alone," Kalik says.

"Shut up, it was only two and a half," Midnight says. Two and a half pages of notes about me? I'm not sure if I should be creeped out or flattered.

"Say, that brand on your head. You've been in Guatachi Prison, right?" I ask.

"Um... Well... Yeah... It's complicated. But I didn't kill anybody, I assure you! I wasn't a criminal at all. I just... Was part of a group of criminals..." Midnight says.

"With one through eight, right?" I say.

"Yeah, but let's not talk about that. They're nothing but old memories to me," Midnight says.


	39. Chapter 15 part 4: Waterfall part 1

"Well then, we should probably start if we hope to get you home," Midnight says.

"Start what?" I ask.

"Rehab. I was thinking a quick walk. There's a nice waterfall near here, I was thinking maybe you'd want to come with me and check it out?" Midnight says.

"I guess I have to start moving again. Am I really so damaged - - and damaged in such a way - - that I need rehab?" I ask.

"Maybe, maybe not. But walking should be difficult, and so it's important that you do it," Midnight says.

"I'm not sure I follow your logic," I say.

"We should go to the waterfall. You'll like it," Midnight says.

"Sounds fair enough."

"We'll just be by the waterfall, Kalik. I'll leave you to take care of my sister and Illias." Kalik nods to us.

I walk out of the cave, finding it easier than getting up, but still painful. Midnight leads me through a small bit of forest to a pond with a small waterfall. It's the kind of pond that's very rocky, the rocks look black because their wetness.

Midnight sits down on the grass next to the pond.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" She says. I sit down next to her.

"It does look pretty nice, yeah," I say.

"It's good to just relax sometimes, you know?" She says.

"Yeah," I say.

"So do you like being part of a rescue team?"

"Well that was out of the blue."

"Sorry, just thinking. I mean, if you don't like it I could help you relocate to somewhere more safe."

"No, I like it."

"Even though you keep almost dying."

"They say the difference between a perfect place and a torturous place is the pokemon you are with, not the place itself."

"So you've grown quite fond of your partners, then." She says it in an almost sad way. Maybe she wanted me to be part of her team?

"Yeah, they're really something else, you know?"

"Yes, I can imagine so. If you are willing to risk your life over and over with them, they had better be."

"Plus, if I'm supposed to be some hero or something, I need to know how to protect myself."

"That's true, I guess. So how's your moveset been developing?"

"My moveset?"

"Yes. You know how Avia can breathe fire?"

"Yes."

"That's one of the moves in her moveset. It comes with experience."

"So are you saying that I could breathe fire?"

"Well, maybe not fire, but I can teach you something useful."

"Really? What is it?"

"Well let's see. What you need is a ranged move. The ranged moves I know are shadow ball, swift, echoed voice and attract. Attract wouldn't be useful half of the time, so that leaves the other three. Your voice doesn't seem to be capable of the frequencies echoed voice could work with, either. And swift is... Well swift is just odd. Let's see..." She looks me over quickly. "Yeah, you could learn shadow ball."

"Sweet! So how do I learn it?"

"Here comes the fun part. Shadow ball isn't inherently a move we can learn. The only way to actually learn it is to find a machine that can teach it to you. It's called a technical machine. Sometimes you can find them lying around in mystery dungeons. They are circular in shape, with a small hole in the middle. Now how to get the technical machine for shadow ball..."

"So if we get this technical machine I'll instantly know the move? Is shadow ball that move where you shoot a dark ball of energy out of your mouth?"

"Here, I'll show you the move." Midnight launches a ball of dark energy at a tree, it hits it, breaking off a decent amount of bark and some of the inner parts of the tree. I've seen this move before. I can't wait to know how to do it too!

"So how do we get the technical machine?"

"That's the problem. We could either try to find it, or purchase it, and even then it's not easy to find. Unless... Hmm. I think I've figured it out. But I can't ask you to go there, and I need to watch over you. So that would leave Kalik and my sister's team. Kalik could probably make it through on his own, but if he were to be paired with Feona his chance of success would be virtually 100 percent. The other two would slow them down more than anything... Alright then, I know where to get it, and who to send. Perfect. We can get them later, though. For now, let's just stay here. Feona isn't even back yet, I'm sure."

"It's really nice of you to do all of this for me."

"Don't worry about it."

"Do you have dreams? Aspirations?"

"Now you're the one asking questions out of the blue." I laugh.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm just curious."

"My only dream is to keep you and my sister safe."

"So no big goals?"

"Other than those, no. What about you, though? I can't imagine saving the world being the only thing you want to do."

"Certainly not. But I'm not quite sure what I want to do with my life."

"That's the adventure."

"Yeah, that's what it is." Midnight laughs.

We're quiet for a few minutes, just staring at the waterfall. It's nice to slow down and appreciate nature, instead of having to fight for my life.

"This is nice. Just being together like this. Alone, out in the wilderness, in front of this beautiful waterfall," Midnight says.

"Yeah. I like waterfalls, as it turns out," I say.

"I'm glad, I do too. Especially when someone special to me is nearby," Midnight says. She presses the side of her head against mine, and moves in close to me, so that I can feel the warmth of her body. I blush. I try to think of something to say, but I'm not sure what. So we stay like that for a minute. Just being awkwardly close.

I wonder why she's so close. Does she have a crush on me or something? Or maybe she's just really tired and I'm the best pillow she could find on short notice. Good job, Jiro, it's definitely the second one. This is kinda nice, though. I've never really been this close to anyone before. She feels soft...


	40. Chapter 15 part 5: Waterfall part 2

"Midnight, so tired that you're using Jiro as a pillow, I see?" Kalik's says from behind us. Midnight blushes, and pulls her head away from mine. She gives Kalik an angry look. "Oh, I'm sorry, am I interrupting something? Oh dear, now if only I had been kept busy, this might not have happened. Like maybe if you sent me to meet Avia, for example?" Well, I'm missing something here. Midnight seemed to want to be alone with me, and Kalik interrupted that. It seems that he wanted to meet Avia, so I guess he's bitter? Okay, I think I understand now.

"Really? You're really that bitter about this?" Midnight says.

"Bitter? Me? Never," Kalik says.

"Seriously?" Midnight replies.

"Alright, you want the truth? I just don't think it's fair that you're running my life, alright?" Kalik says.

"You really want to meet Avia that bad?" Midnight asks.

"Yes, it'd be nice to finally meet a fire-type who isn't off-limits," Kalik says.

"How about we make a deal? You get to take Jiro through the final stretch home, and introduce yourself to his teammates."

"Thank you. I'm uh, sorry I snapped at you."

"It's understandable. By the way, I need you to get something for me."

"What do you need?"

"I need the TM shadow ball, I was thinking you could go to the abandoned lab."

"Um... Are you sure you're awake? We have the TM, remember? It's the same one you used."

"I thought that TM was one use only."

"No. I thought you of all pokemon would be able to keep track of that. I can go get it, if you want."

"Please do. Be back by tonight, alright?"

"Will do. I'll put my full force into getting it as soon as I can."

"You should wait for Feona, and take her with you when she gets back, she'll be a good partner for you to have. Safety in numbers, you know?" Kalik gives Midnight an odd look.

"Okay, I'll bring her along..." With that, Kalik runs off. Midnight turns to me.

"I'm sorry you had to see that drama. He's usually not like that, I swear. We're just all really stressed right now. Kalik and I haven't been getting much sleep recently, we've been too busy with... preparations. And if you thought Crystal - - the kirlia I sent to give you a message - - was bad before, you should see her when she hasn't slept," Midnight says.

"About that message. So you said I was going to meet pokemon from another guild soon?" I ask.

"Yeah, there's a huge meeting of the minds held at the Scizor guild every year. From what I know, you're the smartest trainee, so it would only make sense that you would be sent there. But one of my informants has told me of an evil he has sensed there. I know it's not much to go on, but it's all the information I have," Midnight says. She gets close to me again, and rests her head in the space between my head and where my front leg connects to my body. "I hope you don't mind that I'm using you as a pillow. I'm just... tired." Maybe my pillow theory was right. Well that's crazy.

"And the informant is the sandshrew there, right?"

"Yeah. He's quite like Kalik - - personality-wise, actually, just minus the mood swings."

"So what does one do at this 'meeting of the minds'?"

"Talk to some of the smartest pokemon who are training to be on rescue teams, share strategies, form partnerships. The main reason for it is to foster trust between the guilds, not really to help the smart pokemon."

"Well that's stupid."

"Tell me about it."

"Am I a comfortable pillow?"

"Very."

"Good to hear it."

"I'm sorry if this is awkward for you. I can take my head away-"

"No, it's fine, really." I kinda like having her head here. It makes me feel warm inside, somehow.

"So... Do you have a girlfriend back at the guild?"

"Um... No, why do you ask?"

"I know pretty much everything about you, but I don't know that for sure. You hang around three different girls, you know? And they all seem quite nice. I'm assuming you like nice girls."

"Yeah, dating a nice girl would be better than dating a jerk, that's for sure."

"Good, I want to see you being treated well."

"I'm still not sure how I feel about your stalking me."

"It saved your life several times over, and I probably will have to save you again."

"Good point."

"So you're okay if I follow you around?" If I don't, I might die. There's no real choice here.

"Yeah, it's fine. I trust you."

"Good, because if we're going to get through this, it's going to need to work together."

"Get through what?"

"Saving the world."

"And how am I supposed to save the world?"

"I'm not allowed to say."

"What am I saving the world from?"

"The pokemon who wish to wipe it out."

"And who would they be?"

"There are so many of them, you've seen them in your dreams, just while walking around town, and maybe even in your guild."

"Are you saying someone from my guild is out to kill me?"

"No, quite the opposite, really. Killing you would be a risky maneuver, what they would want is to capture you, or find some other way of using you to help them achieve their goals."

"So they don't want to kill me."

"No, not really."

"So that should be a relief."

"It's not?"

"No, somehow it makes me even more worried."

"I understand, it's a big responsibility, you're going to more on edge the further you delve into it, but just remember that we brought you into this world because we believe in you." Oh, that's right, I'm a human from another world. It's odd, in a way, I almost forgot.

"Anyway, there's nothing we can do about it now." Midnight yawns. "I'm sorry, I'm really tired. I'm just going to sleep now, I hope you don't mind." With that, she lies down and goes to sleep. Her breathing when she's asleep if different from her breathing when she's awake, it's slower, and more relaxed. I watch her for a bit, I find her rhythmic breathing to be rather calming. I'm still kinda tired too. And it's not like I have anything better than sleep to do. Plus, I want to get to the guild and try out shadow ball as soon as possible, and so if I get sleep now, I won't have to get as much later.

And so without a second thought I lie down next to Midnight, my body pressed against hers, and go to sleep.


	41. Chapter 15 part 6: Shadow Ball

**Just to clear up a question from Lisa38, these are normal pokemon, not poke-morphs. **

"Woah. I leave you two alone for a few hours and you get really comfy, eh?" Kalik says. I jump up, startled. Midnight gets up slowly. Kalik has a bag with him, strapped to his back, the TM must be in there.

"Huh? Oh, Kalik, you have the TM, then, right?" Midnight asks.

"Yeah, yeah. But let's just take a second to appreciate how fast your relationship is moving. What, did you two propose already? Did I miss that too?" Kalik asks.

"What are you talking about?" Midnight asks groggily.

"Oh, I dunno, you two were so cute, sleeping right next to one another. So when's the wedding?" Kalik jokes.

"So the TM," I say. Kalik takes the bag off of his back, and removes a circular object with a small hole on the inside from it.

"Here it is. The dreaded shadow ball," Kalik says. He uses his mouth to toss the TM to me. It lands a few inches in front of me.

"So how do I use it?" I ask.

"Just put your paws on it and focus, the TM will do most of the work," Midnight says. So I comply and put my paws on the TM. I close my eyes.

I can feel some kind of energy flowing into me, but it feels like it's taking energy, too. The energy's building, is it supposed to hurt? It does. It hurts less than almost drowning, but it hurts all the same. I try not to scream in pain, I need to be tough, but man does this hurt.

Finally, the energy stops. I realize that I've been holding my breath, so I exhale. I spend a little bit just trying to catch my breath.

"We... Uh... We may have a problem," Midnight says.

"Did the TM not work?" I ask.

"Oh, no, I'm positive it worked. But it... uh... well you see... You should look at your reflection," Midnight says. My reflection? What happened to me? I walk over to the pond, and look at my reflection.

I don't remember having black fur.

I don't want to have black fur, I like the way I looked before. Why would I have black fur? I don't look like an umbreon. I am an eevee, I should have adorable brown fur, that's what eevees always are like. Not that black fur isn't cool. I do kinda like it, but it's not how I'm supposed to look.

I can't see all of my body, though, maybe it's just my face and the fur near it?

"What did you do to me?" I yell.

"Well, with every used TM there is a uh... slight chance - - about .02 percent - - that it will have side effects. And that isn't helped by an eevee's natural adaptability," Midnight says.

"Will I be like this forever?" I ask.

"I don't know for sure. The dark energy seems to have done something to your fur, but I'm not sure if it changed the DNA, too. I doubt it, personally. So you're probably going to be getting back to normal eventually," Midnight says. Well that's a relief, if she's right, anyways.

"Is... Is all of my fur black?" I ask.

"Yes, all of your fur is black," Kalik replies.

"What about my eyes?" I ask.

"They haven't changed at all," Midnight says.

"How am I supposed to come back to the guild looking like this? Avia and Cyria won't even recognize me," I say. For the first time since I've arrived in this world, I feel alone. Which is odd, because Midnight and Kalik are here, but it's almost like they aren't. Without Avia and Cyria... no. There must be some way to make them recognize me.

"Don't worry about that, they're true friends, are they not? If they don't recognize you, make them recognize you," Midnight says.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Certainly you have shared experiences with them that no one else knows of. Remind them of those," Midnight says.

"On that note, we probably should get going soon. We did promise Avia we'd have you back by tomorrow at the latest," Kalik says.

"Before you go, though, I need to teach you the basics of shadow ball," Midnight says. If I'm going to have a change in fur color because of it, I guess I should try to learn the move to the best of my ability. "Shadow ball is a ranged move, used for mid-range combat, or some forms of long range combat. The move is created by storing dark energy at the tip of your mouth, and releasing it in a spherical form. The sphere is important because otherwise the dark energy will be unbalanced, and hurt you more than your target. It would probably explode in your mouth, which I assure you is not a good fighting tactic. For now, you should practice with smaller shadow balls, they're easier, and will hurt you much less if something goes wrong."

So I try to build up a small bit of energy, it's odd, building up the dark energy feels as just like moving a leg would. It's natural, I just tell my body to send the energy, and it does. This is easy! Then, I try to fire the ball. This is harder than gathering the energy. I try to move it, but the ball explodes in my mouth.

"Darn it," I say.

"Try to give the energy a little push with a small amount of more energy, Like a little spark of it, you know?" Midnight says. A little spark. Okay, I think I get it.

So I try again. I build up a small amount of energy, and add a small spark to the end of it. The ball moves a foot away from me before exploding.

"See, you're getting it now! You're a natural," Kalik says.

"It's because, due to the side effect, his body is already dealing with dark energy, now he's just learning how to use it for his own means. He was half-way there before he even started. Still, your rate of progression is great, Jiro. You should have shadow ball mastered by the end of the month, if you keep at it." And then I'll finally have a good ranged move.

"Well, let's get you back then, shall we?" Kalik asks.

"Yeah, let's go," I say.


	42. Chapter 15 part part 7: Jiro the Wise

"So how far away are we?" Kalik asks.

"I'd say we still have an hour or so to go. And shouldn't I be the one who keeps asking that?" I ask.

"What, I can't be excited to introduce myself to your team?" Kalik asks.

"No, that's fine. I'm just saying you would think I'd be more excited to get back to them," I say. Kalik shrugs.

"I guess," he says.

"Come on!" I hear a male voice shout. I look ahead on the path, and it looks like there are some pokemon there. I'll bet one of them was the one who shouted. I wonder what they're doing, though. It doesn't seem like they're moving, but they could be talking. But why talk on a path? What's going on?

"What do you think is going on over there?" I ask.

"Trouble, if I had to guess. And we're going to have to break it up," he says. He runs towards the pokemon, and I follow him.

When we get closer, I begin to make out the pokemon. There's a vulpix and a kirlia standing together, and across from them are a monferno, a combusken, and a bellsprout. A vulpix and a kirlia together... There's a good chance they're Cyria and Avia!

"Are you ready to be a hero?" Kalik asks.

"But what am I supposed to do?" I ask.

"Just follow my lead," Kalik replies.

Once we get close to the pokemon, I take a look at them again. It's definitely Avia and Cyria, but who are these other pokemon? I guess this means the expedition is over, too. I'll have to ask how it went later.

"Excuse me, I couldn't happen to notice it seems like there's an argument going on. Do you all need some _help_ solving your issue?" Kalik says.

"Who are you losers?" The monferno asks. Kalik turns to Avia.

"Are they bothering you?" Kalik asks Avia.

"They're wanted thieves," Avia replies.

"No way, she's the wanted thief!" The bellsprout yells. I have to pretend like I don't know Avia for now. Telling her I'm Jiro would just complicate everything, especially seeing as my fur is now a completely different color. I can't have questions mid-battle.

"What do you say, Blacky?" Kalik asks. At least we're on the same page, but Blacky? Is Blacky really the best name you could come up with?

"I say we trust the vulpix," I say.

"Ma'am, what is your name?" Kalik asks.

"I'm Avia, and my kirlia friend here is Cyria," Avia says. Without another word, Kalik winks at me and walks over to the bellsprout. Once he's very close, he shoots fire from his mouth, lighting the bellsprout on fire, then he kicks the bellsprout, who flies into the air, and lands ten or so feet away.

"That is what you get for lying to Kalik the brave and Blacky the wise," Kalik says. Well that was one way to start a fight. Cyria continues the fight by puching the combusken in the face, knocking him onto his back. I jump to where the combusken fell, and charge up a shadow ball, I move my mouth right up next to him, and watch as the shadow ball explodes in his face, knocking me back a few feet, and visibly injuring the combusken. "So you can surrender, or you can die, it's your choice." The monferno looks at us in fear.

"Oh... uh, I was just joking when I uh... Stole it, I was going to return it... I was borrowing it... yeah, that's what I was doing," the monferno says. He hands Cyria a necklace with a sapphire attached to it. The necklace itself looks like it's made out of gold. It must be valuable. But who does it belong to?

"Thank you, you two. As much as we'd love to stay and chat, we were supposed to be back earlier this morning, and I really don't want to suffer the guildmaster's wrath," Cyria says. Then she teleports away, taking Avia with her.

"Well that sucks. But hey, at least she's cute," Kalik says.

"I wonder why they were in such a hurry," I say.

"Well, both because of their mission, and because they think you might be home by now. I imagine they're too worried about you to actually thank us properly," Kalik says. We continue walking along the path, leaving the criminals to suffer on their own. I would capture them, but that didn't seem to be our mission, based on Cyria and Avia's quick escape. And they're not worth the trouble of bringing back.

"And how would they thank us properly?" I ask.

"With a kiss, duh," Kalik says. I roll my eyes. "So they probably went back to the guild, huh?"

"Yeah, and if we don't hurry, they'll be sent out on another mission before we get there," I say.

"Calm down, Blacky. If they see us later, they see us later. We're in no rush," Kalik says.

"No, but I'd like to get back to them as soon as possible."

"Until then, we're the unstoppable duo Kalik the brave and Blacky the wise."

"Was Blacky really the best you could come up with?"

"I didn't have much time to come up with a name. I assume you didn't want me to introduce you as Jiro, right?"

"Yeah, that would have complicated things, and that's the last thing we needed before a fight."

"I like you. Already a fighter, and you've only been here a short time."

"I _am _part of a rescue team. I can't just not fight, you know?"

"Yeah, that's true."

After an hour or so of walking we finally reach the guild. I step on the grate.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!" Diglett's voice yells.

"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?" Loe yells back.

"An unknown eevee! An unknown eevee!" Diglett replies. I remember thinking it was odd that these two say everything twice. It still is.

"Not Jiro, huh? ... You may enter!" Loe yells.

"Someone's with you! Get the stranger to stand on the grate!" Diglett yells. I step off of the grate and Kalik steps on. "Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!"

"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?"

"The footprint is a... Uh... A... Well... I think it's a growlithe."

"You think!"

"Sorry, you don't see many growlithe around these parts, so I wouldn't know their footprint!"

"Are you kidding? There's tons of growlithe around these parts! Get your act together!" Loe sighs. "You may enter!" The gate opens, so Kalik and I move down to the middle floor of the guild. Chatot meets us there.

"What business are you here on?" Chatot asks. Yep, he doesn't recognize me.

"We were trying to find Avia and Cyria. We met them earlier, and we need to speak with them about something," Kalik says.

"And what would that something be?" Chatot asks. I can't lie to Chatot, I'll be here for a while, looking like this, so I need to convince him that I am me.

"We had a little... Accident with a TM, and it left me looking like this," I say.

"And why do they need to hear about this?" Chatot asks.

"Because it's me, Jiro," I say.

"Oh, yes, of course it is. How silly of me. How stupid do you think we are? You're obviously not Jiro!" Chatot says.

"Remember when I asked you about the branded numbers? Or when you sent me after that mawile?" I say.

"Oh Arceus. Jiro, it really is you. I'm uh... sorry about earlier. Safety precautions and what not They're in your team room," Chatot says.

So I lead Kalik to my room. I'm glad Chatot didn't ask who Kalik was, and why he was here.

"Oh, hey, it's Blacky!" Avia says when she sees me.

"And Kalik, don't forget Kalik," Kalik says.

"Oh, yes, and Kalik! What are you two doing here?" Avia asks.

"I knew she wouldn't recognize me," I say to myself.

"Wait a minute. That voice... Jiro?" Avia asks.

"Yes," I say. Avia hugs me.

"Thank Arceus. I was so worried! Don't you ever leave us again!" Avia says. Her eyes are watery, but she doesn't cry.

"Trust me, I didn't plan on it," I say. Avia stops hugging me.

"Are you okay? I heard you were injured! Why are you black?" Avia asks.

"I'm fine, though still a little sore, and I'm black because we had an accident with the TM for shadow ball," I say.

"Why were you learning that? And who is this growlithe?" Cyria asks.

"I can answer that. My name, as I'm sure you already know, is Kalik. I'm a team member of Midnight, someone who is very interested in Jiro reaching his full potential, that's why we gave him the TM for shadow ball. I also helped him recover from his injuries, and brought him home," Kalik says. Avia hugs Kalik, too. But it's only a quick hug, not nearly as long as her hug with me. After the hug, Kalik gives me a look, as if to say, "I wish I could be with her all day, like you are".

"Thank you for your help, Kalik. But uh... why did you introduce Jiro as Blacky earlier?" Avia asks.

"It would have been harder to beat the criminals if I had introduced Jiro as himself then and there. It would have caused confusion, which is the last thing you need before a fight. Well, I've got to head out. But I'll see you folks later," Kalik says. He flashes a smile at Avia and leaves.

We spend the rest of the day telling stories. I tell Avia and Cyria about my experiences with Midnight (minus the sleeping next to each other and the awkward closeness), and Cyria tells me of her expedition. The expedition, as it turns out, was a complete failure. All they found was mist and empty land.


	43. Chapter 16 part 1: The Electric Orb

The day begins as usual, other than the whole issue with my fur. I get asked several times about it, I just tell everyone that it was an accident with a TM, they don't need to know the rest of the story.

We choose a mission involving a luxio and a shinx. I don't read it over too closely, but it sounds like the luxio has been out of control ever since he evolved.

We spend several hours climbing a large mountain, through a lightning storm. The lightning seems to be striking near the top of the mountain, and the wind is so intense that it's hard to hear.

When we get to the top, we see a shinx and a luxio, they seem to be talking. Is this the luxio we were sent after?

"Just come home, Ray! Nothing will come of this!" The shinx yells over the storm.

"You don't understand. You could never understand in your current state. I need it," the luxio replies.

"You don't need it, Ray! No one needs that kind of power!" The shinx yells back. Something serious is going on here. We need to intervene, now.

"But I do. My body is weakening, but you could never understand. I'll die without it!" Ray yells.

"But you'll die with it! Those who live for violence die by violence, don't you understand, Ray? Just come home... I miss my big brother," the shinx says.

"What should we do?" Avia asks.

"Calm them down and find out what's going on," I say. We walk over to Ray and the shinx.

"What's going on here?" Cyria asks.

"Yes, what is going on here?" Ray asks. He circles us. "Two hot chicks and an exotic looking eevee. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"We're here because we were called in to take care of an out of control luxio. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" Cyria asks. But the question is more of an accusation than an actual question.

"No, not at all. There's a luxio here who's trying to save his own life, but I don't know anyone out of control, you must have the wrong mountain. But maybe it's fate that brings us together. I could always use another-" Ray starts.

"Yes, I called you here. He's out of control. He's trying to steal a dangerous item from this mountain," the shinx says.

"Dangerous? Why I'd say it'd be more dangerous if I don't get it soon. My body is destabilizing. I can feel it. I need it to make me whole again. One touch destroyed me, another shall fix me," Ray says.

"You don't understand the forces you're messing with!" The shinx yells.

"No, Brandon, you don't understand the force you're trying to stop," Ray says. He turns away from us and begins walking towards an odd rock formation. Just before I can move ahead, a bolt of lighting strikes in front of me. It knocks me back several feet, and knocks most of the air of of me. I try to catch my breath. "I'd be careful, the lighting around here can get quite fierce." Ray puts his front two paws on a boulder about three times his size, and it is blown to bits, revealing a staircase that was underneath. That power... That's incredible... To be able to destroy that boulder so quickly...

"We have to stop him!" Brandon shouts. We all run to the staircase and begin to climb down.

You would think that Ray would be just ahead of us, but he's not. I don't know where he is. I can't see him on the staircase at all. What's going on?

After we climb down the staircase, we are greeted by a large room made completely out of stone. I look around, but I still don't see Ray. What I do see, though, are two exits to this room. Ray probably went through one of these.

"What is he looking for?" I ask.

"Death itself," Brandon says.

"Yeah, I'm going to need you to be way more specific," I say.

"He's looking for the electric orb. My family sealed it away here, and has guarded it for many generations. I never imagined one of our own would fall victim to its trap," Brandon says.

"So an orb with some kind of power to tempt... What does it do for the user?" I ask.

"It kills everyone who uses it until it finds someone it likes. They become a host of sorts. We shouldn't be sitting around here talking, though, we need to find Ray," Brandon says.

"Find me? Congratulations, you win," Ray says, entering the room through the door to the right. Electricity surges around his body. I should be careful, that electricity looks almost as strong as the lightning.

"Ray! No! Please, Ray! Don't do this!" Brandon yells. I guess the orb must have liked Ray.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of this," Avia says.

"Oh I'd love to see that. Come at me then, if you're so confident," Ray says. Avia breathes a large amount of fire at Ray, but he disappears. He reappears behind Avia and shoots her with a bolt of electricity, she falls to the ground. She's still breathing, thank Arceus, but she doesn't seem to be conscious. "Anyone else care to be brave?" Psychic energy surrounds Ray, and throws him against the wall. After he hits the wall, he disappears again, only to reappear behind Cyria and shoot a bolt of electricity at her. She falls to the ground. Another bolt of electricity hits Brandon, knocking him to the ground. "And then there was one. Not so confident now, are you, eevee?" Where are you, Midnight? Kalik? Anybody? Am I really on my own here? What is there left for me to do? And why am I so scared? I've gotten so close to death so many times, so why is this guy any different from any other criminal I've faced? I almost beat that furret alone, this guy's just like him. Except he's not as crazy, no, he actually seems kinda smart. And he's stronger, too. He didn't just come upon some amazing power, he already had enough to take me out beforehand. What options are there left? Negotiation? He wouldn't negotiate with me, would he?

"I... uh..." I stammer.

"I wonder though, how did you get so lucky? Two beautiful girls just follow you around all the time. It must be nice. But soon they won't be yours to lead anymore, you'll all be mine to command," Ray says. He stares me down.

Come on! Think! Think! Shadow ball! Moves can be the most deadly when unstable. If nothing else, I can try to use to to escape and go get help. He's close to me, I think I can pull it off! I try to charge up a large shadow ball, but it ends up exploding in my mouth, knocking me to the ground.

"Well that was certainly interesting. I commend you for knowing when to give up. Here, let me finish you off," Ray says.

The last thing I see is a bolt of lighting shooting towards me.


	44. Chapter 16 part 2: Slavery

I wake up in a stone cell. It looks like a classic prison cell, walls on three sides, bars on the other, but the whole thing is made up of some kind of orange stone.

I look around, everyone else is awake. Avia, Cyria, Brandon. But none of us speak. They must all be trying to figure out a way to get out of here too.

"So what's going to happen to us now?" Avia asks.

"Let's just say, I envy Jiro," Brandon says.

"Why's that?" I ask.

"Because you get to leave. I heard Ray talking to himself. He's going to sell you, and keep the rest of us as slaves," Brandon says. He looks down, obviously unhappy.

"Sell me? To whom?" I ask.

"To whomever wants to buy you. Black eevees aren't exactly common. If you're lucky, you'll be sold to someone who treats you nice," Brandon says. Avia looks down too.

"So not only are we going to be slaves, but we're going to be slaves without having Jiro here with us? Jiro, will you come back and save us one day?" Avia asks. Certainly Midnight or Kalik must be on their way to save us. They must be.

"I won't need to come back, we're all getting out together," I say.

"How? Don't you see how hopeless this is?" Brandon asks.

"Yes, but I have some pretty powerful friends," I say.

"Not powerful enough, eevee. I don't care if the friend you're talking about is Arceus, I'll kill him," Ray, who just appeared out of thin air, says. "I've got someone interested in buying you coming by any second now, so look nice, okay?" Someone's already coming to buy me? How long was I out for? Please let it be someone I know, please let it be someone I know.

"You can't just sell-" Avia starts, but Brandon covers her mouth.

"Now I need the eevee to stay here, the rest of you can move to the second cell yourself, or be moved there by force," Ray says. He opens the cell door and lets Cyria, Avia, and Brandon out, then he closes it and leads them down a hallway. Eventually, they get too far away to see.

So now I'm all alone, probably about to be purchased, and my friends are going to be slaves for the rest of their lives. What else could go wrong?

A slender espeon comes into my view. She looks me over quickly.

"I'm here to get you out," she says. I look her over quickly, she's hot. Very hot. And she looks like she has some form of genuine concern for me. And then I see it on her forehead, a brand with the number one on the inside.

The most dangerous of a group of dangerous murders, one who has not reformed, wants to buy me.

Ray appears next to her.

"So what do you say, you like what you see?" Ray asks.

"Oh yes. I think I've finally found my new apprentice," the espeon says. Apprentice? I'm not sure if I should be relieved or worried. On one hand, that means she doesn't want to torture or kill me. But on the other hand, she might have me torture or kill someone else. "Hey, what's your name?"

"M-my name is J-Jiro," I say.

"Don't worry, there's no need to be scared. I won't hurt you. My name is Lily," the espeon says.

"Alright then, so where's the money?" Ray asks.

"Money? Oh, you must be mistaken about how this is going to work. You're going to give him to me, or I'm going to take him by force," Lily says.

"Force? Don't make me laugh. Just try and take him from-" Ray doesn't get to say another word, a psychic energy lifts him from the ground, and begins to smash his head against the ceiling of the room.

After being hit against the ceiling five or so times, Ray screams loudly in pain.

"Please stop. You can have him, just leave me in peace!" Ray yells. Ray drops to the ground with a thud.

"You're lucky I'm in a good mood today, or you would be dead a thousand times over right now," Lily says. She opens the door to my cell with her psychic powers, and I walk out. I follow her up the stairs, and back to the top of the mountain.

The storm is gone, and it's late day now. I must have been out for most of today, and the rest of last night, maybe even longer. It could have been two days, five days, a week, a month, for all I know.

"So where are we going?" I ask, shaking a bit from fear.

"We're going to go to my training grounds, it's a bit of a hike, but luckily for us, I can teleport us there," Lily says.

"W-what am I going to be doing as your apprentice?" I ask.

"Don't worry about it, it'll be fun! And that luxio who captured you, in a month I can guarantee that you could defeat him in a fight, even in his possessed state," Lily says. A month to become that strong? That's insane! She must be just as good a teacher as she is a fighter if she can promise that.

"H-how did you know that he was posessed?" I ask.

"Darling, I'm psychic, I know much more than that. He was trying to hide Avia, Cyria and Brandon from me. He didn't want me to know that he had made them his slaves. The last time you had a romantic moment has when you... Oh Arceus, you know Midnight! She's doing fine, too, that's wonderful. I always wondered how she was doing," Lily says. She was reading my mind, she must have been. I don't like having her in my mind. But if I try to resist, she still does have the power to kill me on a whim, and she still is a dangerous former prisoner. "Yes, yes I am dangerous. Good call on that. You seem to be almost as smart as Midnight, based on how your brain seems to think. Hm... Yes, not quite as smart, though. She has grown very quickly. And seems to think you're very cuddly." Lily giggles; I blush. "Now let's get going, shall we? We can talk more once we get to your new home."


	45. Chapter 17 part 1: Training part 1

And then, without another second wasted, I'm teleported to a completely different place. There are a few tents scattered around, and there's one decent sized house a little distance away. I'm currently in a clearing of a forest of some sort.

So am I really her apprentice? Just like that? Why me, anyway? Surely there are stronger pokemon, and there's got to be smarter ones out there too.

"Yes, but none of them are quite as unique as you are. I mean, come on, an oddly colored eevee who's also a human? You're even more different than I was when I was your age. Plus, you've got potential. All eevees do, really. They can be molded and formed into something much more powerful than any other pokemon, being as adaptable as they are" Lily says. Well, there goes the secret of my being a human.

"So where are we going to start, then?" I ask.

"Right to the training. I like it. Let's see, your moveset is pretty weak. You need a stable ranged move. Well then, how would you like to perfect shadow ball in one hour?" Lily asks.

"One hour? That's impossible."

"Try me."

"Okay then, where do I start?"

"Just charge up the most powerful shadow ball you can. Don't worry about stability or anything like that, I'll help you with my psychics." I guess I do need to get stronger if I'm ever going to save Avia. And Lily said she could get me there in a month. It's worth a shot.

So I charge up a large shadow ball, finding it surprisingly easy, thanks to Lily's help.

"Great, now fire," Lily says. And so I do. It hits the ground and sends dust flying everywhere. This shadow ball was faster, stronger, and larger than normal. "Now do that fifteen more times." And so I do it fourteen more times, each time being just as successful as the last. But I can't seem to get the energy to do it a fifteenth time. "As I thought. Here, drink this." Lily levitates a tan bottle containing an orange liquid over to me. I drink it without question. I need to be stronger, I need to do this. And Lily's my best shot at becoming stronger, so I don't bother with questions. So I do it fifteen more times before becoming tired again, so she gives me the drink again. This cycle repeats for almost an hour.

"So what is the purpose of all of this? All I'm doing is going through the motions, without your help, I wouldn't be able to do any of this on my own," I say.

"Are you sure? Try it again. No help from me, I promise," Lily says. So I charge up another large shadow ball, and I fire it with no difficulty at all. It looks exactly the same as the ones I've been using so far!

"How..." She winks at me.

"It's simple, I slowly helped you less and less until I wasn't helping you at all. And now you've mastered shadow ball in an hour. I told you, you could do it. I'm the perfect mentor for you."

"Why do you need an apprentice, anyway?"

"Many reasons. It's complicated."

"Can you give me at least one of the less complicated reasons?"

"I'm bored."

"You're bored?"

"What am I supposed to do with my life? I'm a convicted criminal, so I can't go anywhere and make any friends, I'm alone. But if I have an apprentice, then I don't have to be alone anymore. I have you now!" She smiles at me. Now I feel almost bad for her... But I still need to save Avia, not be some project! "What if you could do both? Tell you what, after we get you strong enough, we can go save your friends together. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

"What's the catch?"

"Catch? There's no catch. I mean, you'll still be here with me and all after."

"But Avia will be free."

"Yes, your girlfriend will be free." I blush.

"You can read my mind, so you must know she's not my girlfriend." Lily laughs.

"I know, but your reaction is so funny!" For someone who's a hardened murderer, she can be pretty light-hearted. At least she's not full-on serious, that'd be crazy. I like it better this way. I may still basically be a slave, and sure, I'd rather be back at the guild with Avia, but I can still help Avia follow her dreams. And I've got my own destiny to follow. So I need to get power, and be quick about it. Whatever my destiny is, I have a felling my enemies aren't just going to wait around for me. The guild is good, but Lily seems to be a much better teacher. And she actually respects me. "Well of course! You have the potential to be just as strong as I am. That's worthy of respect. Plus, you're both smarter and more strongly willed than most pokemon. Even if you fail, you'll just keep on going."

"I don't suppose you could teach me how to read minds like you do."

"If you evolve into an espeon, sure! But otherwise, no, it's not possible. But no matter what you evolve into, you'll have special talents! But you shouldn't evolve yet, we still need to mold your talents more."

"Well that's still cool. So what are we going to do next?"

"Still raring to go? Perfect. I need to test your strength."

"How are we going to go about doing that?" Wait, am I actually... Smiling? How can I think of this as fun? This isn't fun, this is serious work! So why am I so excited to see what's next?

"You're going to attack me, how else?"

"Attack you?"

"Come on, we both know I can handle anything you can throw at me."

"I'm more worried about myself."

"Don't worry, I won't counter-attack or anything. I just want to see how you would attack a real opponent."

"Alright." I start by shooting a shadow ball at her, and charging behind it. She moves to the left of the shadow ball to dodge it, so I move to where she moved to, and attempt to bite her. But I'm stopped just before I reach her by her psychics. She moves me a few feet away from her and drops me on the ground.

"Hiding behind the shadow ball, and a bait attack all in one. Not bad at all! Decent physical speed, too. But decent isn't fast enough. Decent gets you killed."

"Well aren't we a ray of sunshine?"

"Hey, I said the strategy was good. Take the compliments you can get."

"So now you've seen my strength."

"Yes, I suppose that's the best you have for now... Well then, we need to improve your physical strength."

"So how do we go about doing that?"

"Just follow me." I smile again. Lily smiles at me. "Having fun?"

"Yeah."


End file.
